Midchildan Music
by ZankouHoshizora
Summary: When a random Sergeant in the Time-Space Administration Bureau finds an AI data chip on the ground, he elects to take it with him... but the inhabitant of this particular chip is anything but a normal Midchildan AI.
1. Two Very Bad Ideas

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Nanoha or the Vocaloids. Sadly.

* * *

I'm getting seriously tired of this job. Really. Oh, it sounded good at first: join the Time-Space Administration Bureau's Ground Forces, train my magical abilities, maybe even work my way up to a command position with enough time and effort. I'll tell you right now, that's really unlikely. What they _don't_ mention in the recruiting campaigns is that the B-rank exam has a 95% fail rate.

What, never heard of that test? Mages are ranked according to their power level, you see, from F up to SSS. And unless you're a AA at _least_, you can just forget about seriously commanding anyone. Oh, sure, even non-mages can command some units, maybe even reach flag rank with enough effort… but that's really kind of rare. Really, it's the powerful mages that get command positions most readily. And of course, like I just said, the B-rank exam is nearly impossible, never mind the higher levels.

So yeah, I get to sit here at C rank for four years, having taken and failed the B-rank exam eight times. Just another Sergeant in the Ground Forces, working as support for the 42nd Battalion. There's really only one reason they keep me around, and that is because for all my attitude, I am _damn_ good at my job.

I'm a mechanic, essentially. I design, build, and maintain the devices used by the entire staff of 42nd Battalion, from the basic storage devices used by the line soldiers all the way up to Major Nakamura's Final Judgment, an Intelligent Device optimized for Midchildan-style magic. Devices have a tendency to be finicky, which means my job does keep me busy if nothing else.

You know, it's probably because of my particular specialty that I noticed that one particular data chip, lying on the ground in an alleyway a few blocks away from 42nd Battalion headquarters. They're the size of a fingernail after all; unless you know exactly what you're looking for, you wouldn't even see the chip, much less realize what it was. But as soon as I saw it, I knew exactly what I was looking at… a perfectly good data chip that looked exactly like the ones optimized for Midchildan AIs.

The one thing that every high-level device has to have is one of these AI chips. Sure, for the storage devices, you can usually just pack them full of high-end processors and let the mage wielding them worry about everything else; the processing power of the storage device makes up for the lack of advanced AI. But for anything more than a storage device, especially the Intelligent Devices, a dedicated AI system is a necessity.

That meant there were two very good reasons for me to go and get that AI chip. The first was that these chips aren't exactly common. In all probability, the thing belonged to someone. Worst case, someone's device had been damaged to the extent that the AI chip was separated from the main core. I knew for a fact that Final Judgment was fine, I had just finished working on it two hours ago… but there are a lot more Intelligent Devices out there.

The second, I must admit, was purely selfish. After all, there was always the chance that the AI chip was unclaimed or thrown away. And did I mention the things are rare? Well, that also means they're really expensive. Shocker, I know. But really, who would turn down the possibility of a free data chip?

Certainly not me. I had gone into the alley and knelt down next to the discarded AI chip practically before I realized what I was doing. Maybe I could use this to make an Intelligent Device for myself. That would certainly make that damn B-class test a whole lot easier. Obviously, they don't bother issuing rare, expensive, difficult-to-build-and-maintain Intelligent Devices to C-rank mage Sergeants, but it's not like they would stop me from using one if I happened to have it, right?

This was, of course, predicated on this chip being unclaimed. And there was only one way to check that. I picked up the small grey square chip, being careful not to disturb the silvery metal contacts along the one edge. Holding it up to the fading sunlight, I examined the casing for the chip's serial number.

There are only so many companies in Midchilda that manufacture these AIs, and they all use the same identification systems to facilitate easy tracking of these chips. A while back, there was some huge scandal over who was responsible for this one damaged chip, so these days people make sure that it's easy to tell. The chip had been lying face down, which was nice because the serial number is always printed on the backside of the chip right next to the contact points.

Or at least, that's what I would have said before examining that one. Because right where the serial number was supposed to be was simply more blank grey casing. I think I just stood there staring at the AI chip for a good minute in shock.

Finally, I managed to pull together the presence of mind to flip the thing over, and got my second shock of the day. You see, decoration is not exactly a priority for these AI chips. You can always be elaborate when building the device itself; the AI chip just goes inside the thing, so it's not like anyone will ever see it.

This chip bucked that tradition too. Painted onto the front of the chip, in nice big military block-style numbers, was a red "01". Not nearly long enough to be my wayward serial number, but at least it was something to identify the damn thing.

I briefly considered heading back to headquarters and turning the chip over to Major Nakamura. Surely, the Bureau would have some way of tracking a lost AI chip, even one as strange as this one… and if it was something else, something less obvious, they'd be able to analyze it in as much detail as they wanted, too.

Needless to say, I didn't do that. I think what eventually decided it for me was that I could analyze the chip too. This is what I do for a living, after all: I maintain devices, including their AIs. I'm as familiar as anyone can be with the little grey chip that I found in that alley. In retrospect, through, it probably would have been smarter for me not to get myself involved, and by taking the chip home to examine it myself, I was most assuredly getting involved.

Oh well. Can't take it back now, right?

* * *

So anyway, like I said, I took the data chip back to my home. I live in an apartment in Midchilda's capital city, where the 42nd Battalion is based; we're one of the units attached to Midchilda's Ground Forces Headquarters. Someone called it the "Tower of Law" in a news broadcast a while back, in connection to that really public terrorist attack on the tower. Nickname stuck, at least for the men in the 42nd.

My apartment is, to put it bluntly, kind of a wreck. I'm not home half the time, since I spend a lot of my time either putting in long hours at the 42nd's headquarters or putting in long hours in this one park I frequent to train. These days, both are kind of dull… but it's better than tripping over the five inches of random crap that fills every available surface in my bedroom.

I mean, seriously. When am I ever going to need all of these random tools and equipment? It's not like I could build devices out of these things; no, most of this stuff is tuning or diagnostic tools, but in more variants and specialized forms than one could ever need.

Case in point: this time around, all I needed was my trusty computer. I sat down at my desk, clearing out the crap sitting on my chair, and plugged the mysterious AI chip into the slot on my computer. Within five seconds, I had the chip's entire contents in front of me, to browse at my leisure.

I paged through the directories carefully, examining the files present. I think it would be safe to say that that's when I got the _third_ shock of the evening. Well, it wasn't all mysterious and unimaginable. There were all the typical files for a functioning Midchildan device AI, in all the right places. A few extra personality coding files, but that's just a stylistic thing. That wasn't the problem.

The problem was that there was a lot more occupied memory space on that chip than you normally see. Basically, a standard Midchildan AI data chip is not entirely AI data. Some of the chip is given over to processors, and usually some of the memory space is left open to permit future growth. Without these considerations in place, a device created from that AI chip would be a lot weaker than even a basic storage device, so much so that its superior intelligence would no longer be able to cover the gap.

That said, if you were to pull the AI chip out of an Intelligent Device that had already been through a lot, with a powerful and dedicated master, you'd probably see something like what I got. I mean, I've heard of the White Devil; who hasn't? And if I ever got my hands on her Raising Heart's AI chip, maybe it'd have this much data on it, considering how much those two have been through. I'd never be able to get my hands on Raising Heart's AI chip, though, so really I have no idea.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that the inside of this chip was as odd as the outside. There was a ton of extra data on there... so much so that the chip was filled to capacity, and the capacity was large enough to suggest that almost all of this particular chip was given over to memory storage. On top of that, it was data that I did not understand. It wasn't spell data, or personality coding, or auto-guard subroutines, or anything like that. A lot of the extra data was… sound files?

"Why the hell would someone put sound files on an AI data chip?" Yes, I actually asked the question out loud. Don't know who I expected an answer from, but I asked it anyway. I clicked on one of the sound files, and my computer's media player came up… and froze. Apparently the data was locked somehow. Encrypted, most likely.

In case you couldn't tell, this makes even less sense. An AI chip like this has to be accessible to the people creating a device. Completely. Locking data not only makes it more difficult to build a device, it would mean the device created would be similarly unable to access the data in question. Okay, I suppose there are a few legitimate uses for this kind of function, especially for the creation of training weapons… if you don't want your trainees using all of the device's most powerful functions right away, you can impose locks on the system.

In my case, though, I had no idea who had put in these locks, or more importantly, how they could be removed. It didn't even offer to let me input a password or anything. And had those locks been on anything other than sound files, that might have gotten me to reconsider my next move.

But I was getting frustrated, I have to admit. One mystery after another, and I never really had any tolerance for guessing games in the first place. And to my mind at the time, there was one easy way to figure this AI chip out: put it into a new device and see what happened.

Needless to say, this was the second of two really bad ideas that I had that night. If I hadn't been tired of my never-ending C-rank classification and frustrated with doing the same things over and over again, day in and day out, I might have stopped myself from making this particular mistake.

But for all that I'm making sense now, telling this story to you, I was not thinking straight at all that night. I just got to work… a device, even an Intelligent Device, is not actually all that hard to make if you know what you're doing. The challenge really is in maintaining and tuning devices, and those aren't things you get to until you have a completed device in the first place. I suppose you could consider the first round of tuning, after you build a device but before you activate it for the first time, to be part of construction… but I digress.

It really only took me an hour or two to construct the thing. I just grabbed an old pair of headphones that I had sitting around and started messing with those, since I didn't have anything better to use for the main body of the device. I could always change things up later, once I had a better idea of what this chip was, or so I thought at the time.

Anyway, once I had successfully integrated the AI chip with the headphones, I added in some extra processors and the necessary energy control circuits. And yes, the headphones still worked when I was done. No self-respecting device technician would ever destroy the core item for the sake of a device; true mastery is being able to integrate the device functions into an item without impeding its original function. Okay, the standby forms of a lot of the Intelligent Devices that I've seen never had an original function, like gems or rings or playing cards, but my point stands.

Tuning was a little more challenging… I'm only a C-rank mage, as the Bureau never seems to get tired of reminding me, about twice a year or so. No, I'm not bitter about anything, why do you ask? Anyway, it would have gone faster with more magical power at my disposal, but I made do with what I had. It only took me most of the night rather than all of it, really. Which was good since I didn't have all of the night to spare.

Finally, with the sun peeking over the horizon, I was finally ready for the moment of truth. I concentrated for a moment, putting the newly upgraded pair of headphones on. Since the device didn't yet have a name, I couldn't call its name to activate it, nor did it have an activation phrase to take advantage of. That meant the activation process was really just a matter of will.

I admit, I was eager. This was my new device, right? Surely, with my personal Intelligent Device, I'd be able to do something about my constant mediocrity, power-wise. As I focused that eagerness on my new device, I felt something click in the headphones. Magical energy flowed through the circuits I had installed and brought the AI chip online. And then…

"My name is Miku Hatsune, Vocaloid zero-one. I am optimized for synthesizing music, particularly singing, and I look forward to working with you!"

I believe my thoughts at the time, hearing that cheery feminine voice greet me, were something along the lines of "you have _got_ to be kidding me."

* * *

Admiral Chrono Harlaown almost visibly growled to see the face of the person calling him. "And to what do I owe this pleasure, Doctor Haynes?" he sighed, putting enough of a twist on the word 'pleasure' to suggest the exact opposite.

The man on the screen frowned slightly in response. "Only the disappearance of one of my lab's research projects," he replied calmly, as if surprised that anyone would be displeased with him. "I was hoping you could put me in touch with one of your enforcers, so that the issue could be properly dealt with."

"You don't need to call _me_ for that," Chrono pointed out with the barest minimum of patience. "There's an official line to use for that kind of report, is there not?"

"The person on the other end of that line doesn't owe me a favor," Dr. Haynes replied smoothly.

At that, Chrono did snarl. "You can't be-" he burst out before bringing himself back under control.

In the moment of silence created as a result, Haynes calmly replied, "You do owe me... do you not, Admiral Harlaown?"

Chrono merely glared furiously at the doctor, face working in anger. Finally, he ground out, "Fine… but we are _even_ after this, understand?" Without even waiting for a response, he stabbed at the 'end call' button, returning the ready room on the _Claudia_ to a state of blissful silence.

Leaning back, Chrono sighed heavily. _How did I ever end up owing that snake a favor…?_ he mused to himself in frustration, as he began typing in a call of his own.

"Fate, would you mind looking into something for me?" he requested almost tiredly, as the call went through.


	2. Vocaloid Device

**Author Note:** Been a while, hasn't it...? Sorry about that. I've been trying to focus on my other story. Also, I was studying abroad in Japan, but then the earthquake hit, and my study abroad program ended early thanks to that... I'm perfectly fine, thankfully (nowhere near the area that was affected by the earthquake, and I've returned to the U.S.), but it did make for a chaotic few weeks that left little time for story writing.

On the upside, right before the earthquake hit I went to a Vocaloids concert in Japan, and that inspired me to get back to writing this, so here it is! Let me know what you all think!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own either Nanoha or the Vocaloids.

* * *

Anyway, while I had sat there trying to work through my shock, Miku must have gotten locked into one of the basic subroutines. I assume so, considering what she was saying when I focused back on her after a moment.

"-select the optimum configuration for the barrier jacket and the device's main-"

"Wait, wait, wait," I cut her off. "What the hell do you mean, _singing_? And how is it that you already have a name, when I haven't named you yet?"

I admit, I wasn't entirely motivated here by an answer to the question. Really any interruption would have worked as well, and if I got an answer to the question, that would just be a bonus. Essentially, I wanted to know how detailed her creators had been in programming her AI.

You see, if I had interrupted a storage device like that, it would have just kept talking and not even noticed my interruption. This is assuming, of course, that a storage device even started talking in complete sentences in the first place. Any decent Intelligent Device, on the other hand, would almost assuredly listen to my objection, but might or might not be able to answer the concerns that prompted it, depending on their level of sophistication.

This self-titled 'Miku Hatsune', though…

"Well, of course!" she replied, still in that too-cheerful tone. "I am a Vocaloid, programmed primarily for singing, so of course that's what I do!" Her voice fell slightly as she continued, "And, I don't remember where I got it, but… Miku Hatsune's just my name, that's all."

This was starting to freak me out a little. Okay, a lot. No Device was this verbose. Even the most powerful of Intelligent Devices, asked about their strong points like that, would almost certainly have responded with a halting, mechanically-inflected "That is my specialty" or something short and to the point in that vein.

Miku here, though… It was if I was talking to another person, not a device. There was no AI, even in Midchilda, that was powerful enough to perfectly replicate a human like this.

Well, I suppose that does depend on whether or not those two are powered by AIs. That is to say, there are devices that can perfectly simulate human beings, to the extent that Miku was right about then. There is a class of Ancient Belkan devices, called Unison Devices, that are nearly indistinguishable from human beings in their level of intelligence.

Of course, there are also only two of those actually known to exist, and no one seems to know how they were created. Well, their masters might have some idea, but I certainly don't. Besides, I don't even know if those actually are powered by artificial intelligence or… I don't know, something else.

Great. More mysteries. I yanked the headphones off my head with a growl and set them down on an analysis machine, hooked up to my computer.

"Um… Master? What are you doing?"

"I'm checking a few things," I replied. "You don't seem to be a normal Midchildan device AI."

"Is that what I am?" she asked innocently.

Rather than answer that question, I activated the analysis system and brought up the data files present on Miku's AI chip. Looking over them again, I confirmed what I had checked earlier: all of the data files essential to the operation of a device were present. Personality coding, energy control subroutines, the main device operation program… no auto-guard subroutine, but then that was kind of an extra option anyway. I could always write one myself once I had looked over her spell database file and found a decent defensive spell to use for that.

Speaking of that… next on the list was her spell database. For all that Miku seemed to believe she was optimized for singing, then, she was a proper device AI. Sure, perhaps a fondness for singing (and the necessary synthesis programs) were embedded in one of the personality files, but surely that was just an extra little feature that was added to make this particular AI a little more lively and interesting… right?

Wait. That spell database file… is kind of strange. Usually it's set up as a database which the device AI can access at will, casting whatever spells are available. The problem was, this file identified itself as the spell database, and was actually a different kind of file entirely, a subroutine to be specific. There was something else going on here.

Examining the file in more detail, I quickly discovered that it wasn't going to be simple to deal with. There was a database in there, but the main section of the file was indeed some kind of program. I stared at it for several minutes, struggling to make some kind of sense out of the lines of code… but no luck. Whoever had written this particular program clearly had never heard of comments.

But I was able to determine that the input for what I was considering to be the "spell subroutine" was linked to the Device's audio functions in some fashion. Poking around in the main program, I noticed that it would call that particular subroutine whenever Miku began generating audio. So maybe she'd get to sing something after all.

"Miku," I suggested, "would you like to try singing something for me?"

"Yeah, all right!" she fired back. I wouldn't have thought that she could sound more excited, but somehow she did. I waited expectantly for a few seconds.

Only dead air greeted me. "Um…"

"I_ can't_!" she exclaimed in a stunned voice. "All of my available music files… they won't open!"

Oh. Right. Damn. Forgot about that. The locks on her system. Was this someone's idea of disabling her as a device? I quickly paged back through her files to the two dozen-odd music ones. Attempting to open them myself proved to be similarly useless… not a one would respond.

That's when a beeping sound from a nearby pile of stuff interrupted my examination. My alarm clock was doing its usual stellar job of mindlessly reminding me that it was time to wake up and go to work. Of course, I hadn't gone to sleep, but I'd dealt with that kind of problem before.

Leaving the newly minted device sitting next to my computer, I stood up. My uniform was kind of rumpled, but I had never cared about that too much to begin with, and this was just the working uniform. Besides, it's not like we had an inspection today or anything. Just another day of keeping the 42nd's devices in working order.

"Master?" a plaintive voice asked.

I looked down at the headphones. "I need to go to work," I informed her. "I've had more than enough of trying to figure all this out for now." With that, I grabbed my wallet and ID card and made for the door.

As it shut behind me, I heard her voice again, so faintly that I thought I was imagining things.

"What am I supposed to do now, then…?"

* * *

I sighed heavily as I examined the storage device on the table in front of me. Some joker had managed to put enough stress on the thing to burn out the energy control circuits, rendering the device a very expensive, oddly shaped piece of metal with no discernible use, unless you needed to poke someone from a few feet away. And of course, I was the one that had to clean up the mess and make the thing usable as a device again.

"Seriously, how do you _do_ this?" I asked to no one in particular. Of course, I didn't get an answer. There was no one else in the room, after all.

I kind of wish I could have gotten one. See, if I had my way, you'd have to fix your own mistakes, and so the careless jerk that had managed to wreck his own device would be in here with me fixing it.

But no, apparently military life means you can foist it off on the mechanic and go on with your training. Hell, my orders were to strengthen the device as well to handle greater energy loads. So whoever did this wasn't even getting punished, just getting a pat on the back for apparently having more natural talent than I did.

Sometimes I really hate the fact that I have such an affinity for the mechanical side of things. I have to suspect that I wouldn't mind this so much if I was the one doing the training and foisting the complicated technical work on someone else. But no, thanks to the one natural talent that I actually had, I get to be the one that does all the work.

"Ugh… This really sucks," I complained angrily, massaging my forehead.

"Something the matter, Sergeant?"

I spun around in surprise. Standing in the doorway was a uniformed woman, smiling slightly as she stepped through the doorway. She was a head shorter than I was, around five and a half feet, but her cool gaze and precise manner lent her an aura of command authority to make up for her short stature. Her black hair was tied up neatly in a bun, leaving the rank insignia on her collar clearly visible, and a silver, blocky cross hung on a choker around her neck.

Not that I needed those to know who this was. "Major Nakamura!" I exclaimed in surprise, quickly standing at attention. Saluting was entirely unnecessary indoors, but there are plenty of ways to show respect anyway. "Ma'am, I apologize, I didn't realize you were there."

Had it been anyone else in the battalion staff, I might have just ignored the interruption and let them chew me out for not showing proper respect. But the Major… Okay, I have to admit, she's the one thing that makes this job livable.

And I don't mean that in a 'creepy staring' kind of way. She's smart. Hell, she could do my job for me if it wasn't for the fact that she has to run the entire battalion. If I recall correctly, she's an A+ level mage… and I know from personal experience that she's an excellent commander. She always listens to the line troops, and she's always composed and even-handed when dealing with problems.

Basically, she was the one person in the entire battalion that I had any honest respect for. I suppose it's a good thing that that one person would be the commander of the battalion… although it would have been nice if my direct superiors were tolerable as well.

Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. Major Nakamura let me stand there for a moment before replying, "As you were, Sergeant. You don't have to stop working just because I asked you a question."

"Yes, ma'am," I replied automatically, turning back around to the damaged device.

"This can't possibly be giving you trouble, can it?" she asked as she walked around to the other side of the table.

"No ma'am, I'm just tired, that's all." My mouth was running on autopilot while I focused on the task at hand. Or rather, while I cursed my horrible luck regarding the task at hand. You see, the outer frame of the device, weakened from its earlier strain, practically fell apart as I touched it. Which made it easier to get at the damage, but also was one more thing I'd have to fix in the end.

"You do look it," she replied calmly. "Anything going on?"

"Well, I finally managed to get an AI chip for an Intelligent Device of my own, but I've been having some problems getting it all to work properly."

… I don't know how she does it. I was just fiddling with the repair work, only devoting a bare minimum of attention to the conversation, and suddenly I've explained the entire situation to her before I even realize it. Although now that I think about it, I suppose this is more my inattention than anything she did.

Of course, she wasn't going to just let that one pass. "A new device? Where is it?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Left it at home," I grunted. "Got tired of trying to deal with it."

Had I actually been paying attention, I might have actually thought about the look on her face. I would have noted the sudden frown, the narrowed eyes, the questioning gaze. Of course, as I've kind of pointed out several times by now, I wasn't paying attention, and so I barely registered the fact that I had said anything.

Well, until she finally spoke up. "You… aren't carrying your new Intelligent Device with you?" she confirmed skeptically, as if she couldn't believe what I had just said.

_That_ tone caught my attention. I finally set the damaged device down and turned to the conversation. "No…" I replied hesitantly as I did so.

"Well, we can't have that, can we, Final Judgment?" she prompted, setting her hands on her hips and casting a glance slightly downward.

The reply came from the silver cross hanging off her neck. "Indeed, ma'am," it assented mechanically.

At this point, I was kind of feeling a little double-teamed. "What?" I objected, still trying to make sense of the situation.

"Look, Sergeant…" she replied. "An Intelligent Device is _alive_. Even one with a weaker AI, like Judgment, is still more than smart enough to learn from its master and make decisions that could help. Now that you have one, I suggest you take this advice to heart: you need to treat him or her right," she pointed out, with a questioning look.

"Her," I supplied in response, a little stunned by the suddenness of the lecture.

"If you're going to be using magic, possibly even fighting, with your new device, don't you think you should treat her like the trusted ally that she has to be?" she demanded earnestly.

Now, by this point I was not in an agreeable mood. Even Major Nakamura's still an officer, and I really hate it when officers decide to ask cutesy questions and dance around the subject. If you're going to give me an order, get on with it, and if not, well then shut up already.

Which is why I tried to disagree. "But," I objected, "I've already spent the entire damn night trying to sort through the problems I'm having, and she's not a normal Intelligent Device; she's smarter than usual and…" Too late I realized what I was saying and shut up.

"You didn't program the AI yourself? The chip came with one?" Nakamura pounced the instant it was clear I wasn't going to keep talking.

"No ma'am," I replied, caught.

She paused for a long moment, resting her chin on her hand in thought. After a long moment, she sighed heavily. "Look, Sergeant, I can appreciate what you're saying, but I think you're making a mistake. You'd be welcome to go back home and get your new device if you want; I'm sure we can spare you for that long."

"Is that an order?" I snapped back, out of patience with the entire affair.

Her eyes narrowed, fixing me with a sharp glare. "Damn it, Sergeant, I am _trying_ to help you out here. I can't tell you how to treat your device!"

I matched her stare evenly. Hell, if she wanted to lose her temper, that was fine with me.

She didn't, of course. She just sighed again. "At any rate, Sergeant, I do need a report from you about this AI chip you apparently just found somewhere, so you can do that now or do it right after you get back from getting your device."

"Major…!" I sputtered in surprise, gesturing at the still-damaged device on the workbench. And just like that, she was back under control and I was on the defensive. Damn it, how does she _do_ that?

"_That_ is an order, Sergeant," she cut me off sharply. "Either go get her or don't, but hurry up and pick one."

Oh come _on!_ Here I am trying to relax with the one thing I actually understand, and this happens. I suppose going and getting that 'Miku' or whatever the hell she called herself would be something simple and easy to do… better than trying to talk to the Major and risking blowing up at her. That'd be the last thing I needed, to piss off the one officer I respected in the battalion.

"I'll be right back, then," I informed her gruffly. Thankfully, I retained the presence of mind to follow through on all the usual rituals for taking one's leave of a superior officer, before heading off back to my apartment.

* * *

"I find this story somewhat problematic, Sergeant," Major Nakamura informed me.

As there was no question or order there, I just stayed silent, standing at something that approximated proper military bearing in front of her desk. The headphones that I had made into a new Intelligent Device were now hung around my neck.

"Have you considered the possibility that whoever made this chip wants it back?" she rebuked me.

"Has such a loss been reported?" I shot back. "Of course I'll return it if I have to, but I'm not going to go around randomly asking people if they're missing an AI chip!"

Nakamura's eyes flashed sharply. "First of all, remember who you're speaking to, Sergeant. Just because you're an invaluable mechanic does not mean _I_ will tolerate an attitude." As I nearly recoiled in surprise at the rebuke, she continued, "And second, what do you mean you'll just return 'it'? You already built the device!"

"Ma'am," I began, carefully keeping a leash on my usual sarcasm, "an Intelligent Device can be just as easily disassembled as it can be assembled."

I didn't get the response I expected to that. I mean, it was obvious, right? A machine can be broken up into its component parts, just as easily as those parts can be put together. Hell, if you don't care about the parts, it's a lot easier to take something apart than it is to put it together. Don't even need a mechanic to know that much, right?

And yet, Major Nakamura visibly flinched. Stared long and hard at me, as if trying to see into me somehow. I met her gaze steadily… even if she was surprised for some reason, what I had said was true, and I had no reason to be ashamed of the truth.

Or so I thought. When Nakamura finally did break the silence, though, she surprised me again. "Why don't you put those headphones on and ask your new device, who did by the way hear everything you just said, what she thinks of that plan," she coldly suggested.

I froze.

It _was_ true. Machines can be disassembled. Computers can be reprogrammed. I was a tech at heart. I _knew_ these things.

Damage a device's power control circuits, or the links between those and the AI core, and the device would be forced into standby mode until auto-recovery systems fixed the damage. Destroy the control circuits, or completely sever the links, and not even those systems would function; the device would cease all operation until repaired by an outside agency.

With mass-produced storage devices, I'd done these kinds of things more than once. Honestly, I probably would have yanked the AI chip out of the device I had started working on earlier. When you're faced with a pile of charcoal where wiring's supposed to be, it's a lot faster to cut out the AI chip and replace it in a new, identical frame than it is to rewire the original one.

Even in Miku's case, it'd be simple. Crack open the headphones and take a pair of scissors to anything connected to the AI chip. It would take me five minutes, and that's if I was careful opening up the headphones. If I elected to use a hammer instead, it'd take me _one_, and the AI chip would probably be fine in the end. Probably.

But when the computer could talk back, when the machine could truly think on its own… when I wouldn't be doing this to one of Three Company's storage devices, serial number E76-42-03-12, but to one Miku Hatsune… How had I never thought of this before?

Slowly, I slipped the headphones on. Softly, I muttered, "You… heard me?"

There was a long moment of silence. I admit I flinched slightly when Miku finally broke it.

"Would you?"

That was it. No affirmation. No accusations. Nothing but two words, delivered in a soft, strangely calm tone that hit harder than a scream would have. Some small corner of my mind registered the natural-sounding voice, comparing it to the mechanical tones of Final Judgment.

I paused for an instant. A variety of situations ran through my head. And to be honest, even an hour earlier, I don't know what conclusions I would have come to. I was a mage, but I was also a mechanic. I had never held an Intelligent Device that I could truly call my own, and had primarily been working on storage devices. Sure, I had done maintenance on Intelligent Devices, but I had never built one, nor taken one apart.

And now, I was holding a device that I had built personally. One that, admittedly, I barely even knew… but surely that was more my fault than hers. Surely she deserved more from her creator than just being taken apart like just another machine. With that realization, every scenario I could think of ended the same way.

"Never."

* * *

I stood in the 42nd's training room, checking the area around me to ensure that I wasn't in the way. The room filled the entire basement of the headquarters, an area several dozens of times larger than my tiny work space. If you lined up the entire battalion in formation, they might have filled a quarter of the room.

When not in use, the room was a mass of white panels and not much of anything else. Since that was boring, it rarely stayed that way for long when people showed up. After all, the point of those panels was to project a holographic training environment.

Today, the holographic field filling the room was providing a forest environment for one of the battalion's companies, who were conducting some kind of exercise. I didn't really know the details, to be honest. I knew enough to stay the hell out of the way, and that's all I needed to worry about while I dealt with my business.

After Major Nakamura had finally pounded the importance of an Intelligent Device through my thick skull, I went over the strange problems with Miku's code, namely the spell database and the locked music files. That only increased her concerns about who created Miku, and why, but unfortunately talking to Miku herself didn't clear much of anything up.

In the end, the Major ordered me to look into the locked files more. She was starting to make a call as I left the office, but obviously I didn't stick around to find out who she was calling. As much as it irritated me to have to randomly poke at encrypted files that were specifically designed not to be interfered with, I had my orders.

Besides, I thought it might make Miku a little happier to be able to sing something. She and I were at least on speaking terms now that I had acknowledged her existence a little more clearly, but she was still kind of cool and reserved. It was actually starting to irritate me a little… what more did she want from me, anyway?

Well, at any rate, I managed to piece together a few more details. Miku couldn't seem to access her spell database without going through a music file, and she clearly didn't have even read access on any of the files in question. I was a little surprised that she didn't have any passwords at all for them, but if her development hadn't been finished, I supposed it was possible.

Of course, sometimes you don't need those passwords, especially when someone's been lazy. A few of the music files, maybe three or four, had not been encrypted well. Actually, the encryption was fine, but the password was not.

You see, I ran this thing called a dictionary attack, mostly on a lark. Just a quick check to make sure that none of the files had been locked with "password" for a password, among other obvious possibilities. One of them, well… and here I thought no one could possibly make such an obvious mistake. Apparently they can, and did!

So I got access to one of the files, and uselessly ran the attack on another three before I finally lost patience and decided to play with the one that I had. And now, I was standing in the 42nd's training room, permission having been duly gained from all relevant officers, with Miku ready and eager for a trial run.

"Miku Hatsune," I prompted her, "set up!"

The world was erased in a tide of color. A blaze of teal-colored light flowed outward, forming a sphere around me.

"Get ready… start sequence complete!" Miku chirped in reply.

A moment later, the headphones settled over my ears. They felt slightly different, as if they had changed shape slightly… but before I could try to confirm that, a microphone extended forth from the right earpiece, and a visor popped out of the left, sliding into place over my left eye.

Then, I felt something shifting down around my hips. Looking down, I realized that a black, mechanical-looking belt had formed itself in place. The belt connected twin round disc-shaped sections with red highlights, one at either hip.

Just like that, it was over. The light surrounding me shattered, and the forest filling the training room returned. Now, however, I had a fully deployed Intelligent Device ready. There was only one little issue.

"No Barrier Jacket?" I asked curiously. I had expected it to sound slightly muffled thanks to the headphones covering my ears, but rather everything sounded clearer and easier to make out.

"Well, you didn't specify any form for it," Miku pointed out. "I do have some preprogrammed, but I didn't think you'd want to wear any of those."

"If you're sure, then," I reluctantly went along with her reasoning. "Whenever you're ready, Miku. One of your music files should be available."

There was a quick pause, and then an excited "I have it!" A moment later, text began scrolling onto my visor.

_MRS, stand by… online. Song file loaded. Confirm activation._

What _was_ this? Surely a spell database didn't need all this fanfare, right?

"What's going on?" Miku asked. "I still can't seem to access the file…"

Only one way to find out. "Confirmed."

_Activation confirmed._

The text faded, replaced by a new readout. This readout was dominated by a pair of progress bars, but the strangest detail was the line of characters across the top… a line of characters that I couldn't read.

I mean, the Bureau has had to deal with different languages in the past. Most computers can effortlessly translate between any of the ones the Bureau has ever encountered, and devices take that one step further by being connected directly to their owners. A device can use any language it prefers, whether that be Midchildan, Ancient Belkan, or an obscure language from some random unadministered world, and its master will still be able to understand it as if the device was using the owner's native tongue. Then, why was it that I couldn't read this…?

Then, I felt my new device draw on my energy, as if she was preparing to cast a spell. Miku didn't take all that much, enough for maybe a basic energy bolt attack. The traditional Midchildan magic circle flashed into being at my feet, its various glyphs glowing a soft teal shade.

And Miku started to sing.

It was a beautiful song. I'm not much of a music fan, but I could make out the soft strains of a piano dominating the start of the piece, with a few other instruments coming in as the song continued. Miku's voice flowed perfectly from one note to the next, clearly audible even as the music increased in volume and intensity.

Audible, but not understandable. Whatever language Miku was using, it wasn't Midchildan.

At any rate, the two progress bars in my field of vision began filling as the song continued. The top one filled steadily, advancing second by second, while the bottom one seemed much more random in its progress. As I watched, though, I realized that its growth slowed or even paused as the music did, and grew much faster as the song Miku was singing hit its high points.

Soon, the song came to its conclusion. The top bar filled entirely as the last strains of music faded, while the bottom bar was mostly but not entirely full. A few seconds later, the top bar itself began to fade out.

"That was beautiful," I complimented Miku. "What's that song called?"

"Huh? I thought I displayed the title," Miku muttered, in a voice tinged with the faintest hint of embarrassment. The line of unreadable characters over the fading progress bar flashed once.

"I can't read that," I informed her.

"What?"

"I said-"

Everything started happening at once. The topmost progress bar disappeared entirely, and new text flashed into existence in its place.

_Ritual complete. Ready spell: Protection MRS_.

At the same moment, I heard a series of shouts from a ways off.

"Confirmed over-S magical response!" "Ready barrage pattern!" "Wait! That's outside the training area!" "Begin suppressive fire!" "Cease-"

Some small corner of my mind suggested that perhaps my headphones were not only permitting sound to reach my ears, but in fact amplifying it. That thought was soon drowned out by the screaming terror that overtook me. It was an understandable reaction, considering there was what appeared to be a company's worth of magical energy bolts bursting out of the trees nearby in a high arc. The barrage peaked near the ceiling of the wide-open room, pausing for the briefest instant before falling back to earth… right in my direction.

That's when I realized that the circle beneath my feet was glowing brightly. Brightly enough to send up a halo of energy all around me, almost like a heat haze off pavement. My eyes snapped back to the text that was still blinking calmly on my visor.

All of this took an instant. I brought my hand up as if to block the incoming bombardment with my palm.

"Miku, Protection MRS!"

A teal-colored, swirling hemispherical barrier of energy snapped cleanly into existence, an instant before the rain of magical fire came down. Dozens of bolts slammed into the area around me, carving divots into the ground and impacting the barrier surrounding me with teeth-rattling force. Impossibly, the barrier held.

I mean, I had cast Protection before. It was a fairly basic defensive spell, a barrier-type magic that defended a wider angle by absorbing the power of an attack. It was also the easiest type of defensive shield to break; had I cast it under my own power, it might have blocked two or three of the energy bolts before shattering.

This barrier, this "MRS" variant (whatever _that_ meant) that Miku was using, absorbed several times that many before the barrage finally petered out. What's more, it didn't even crack. It stood apparently unaffected for another few moments before I let the spell lapse. A wave of fatigue rolled over me, and I sat down heavily.

Then, I felt a distinct tickle of shock. It was accompanied by a sense that something had shifted slightly. I realized that the emotion wasn't my own, but that of my new device.

"You're a proper Midchildan device after all, it seems," I tiredly informed a shocked, silent Miku. "You wouldn't happen to know what the hell that was, would you?"

* * *

The sun sat on the edge of the horizon, lending an orange glow to the city spreading out below.

Fate Testarossa-Harlaown stood on the roof of a building as if surveying the city. Her precise black uniform barely twitched as the wind swirled around her, in sharp contrast to the long blond hair that danced behind her. Grasping Bardiche's standby mode, a roughly triangular yellow gem, she mentally opened a call.

"Ah, Enforcer," came the quick reply. "What news do you have for me?"

"There have been some strange reports and inquiries coming in to headquarters today from the 42nd Ground Forces Battalion," Fate informed him without preamble. "I believe there is a very high possibility that one of the battalion's mechanics may have come into possession of your lost research project, Doctor Haynes."

"Excellent, well done," Haynes on the other end replied. "You have already retrieved it?"

"Not yet," Fate replied. "I was going to confirm the situation with the 42nd's commanding officer tomorrow morning."

"Enforcer, that's not an option," Haynes's voice shot back instantly. "I thought I already told you how dangerous this project was. It needs to be recovered as soon as possible."

"Doctor…" Fate began hesitantly. "I do not believe this mechanic in question merely took possession of your project. The reports suggested that he had a new Intelligent Device with him. At this point, further information would be preferable to quick action."

"No, this is bad," Haynes shot back. "If that research project is misused, we could soon be seeing a catastrophe that will make the JS Incident look like nothing. Enforcer, we're going to need that device and its new master in here for debriefing right now."

Fate paused, concern for the situation mixing with disbelief. "Doctor, surely we can spare the time to go through-"

"Listen to me, Enforcer!" Haynes cut Fate off sharply. "As I recall, your orders from Admiral Harlaown were to follow my every instruction in this matter. Correct?"

"Yes, Doctor."

"Well then, here are my instructions," he continued relentlessly. "You are to take this mechanic into custody and bring him here to my research facility. You are to recover our missing research project or anything built using it. And you are to do this _immediately_, without informing _anyone_ else."

"Doctor, this is highly irregular-"

"Are you going to refuse?" he asked, in a dangerous tone of voice.

Fate sighed heavily. "Understood," she replied simply, ending the call.

She spared one last glance for the city spread out below her, and then spun on her heel, walking to the stairway down. Within a minute, the rooftop was empty, and the roar of a car engine echoed from the streets below.

The sun slid ever so slowly below the horizon, casting the now-abandoned rooftop and the city below it into darkness.


	3. Fated Conclusions

**Author's Note:** And here we are again with another chapter of Midchildan Music. Hopefully it's a good one; if it's not, let me know. (It is not the last chapter, no matter what the title might imply.)

I should mention that if there's something that seems odd, or something you want to ask about why I did what I did, I've been posting more verbose "author's notes" about my stories on my blog lately, which is set as my homepage on my profile. If you want to ask me a question and be assured of getting an answer, asking it over on my blog is more likely to get you one. Ideally I should reply to all of my reviews, and I really do need to thank all of you (ThanosofTitan, GeshronTyler, Alex phoenix Wing, Tsukino Kage Spectre, Queensarrow, Gundum M, alatnet, Baughn, and Keimarios) who have taken the time to review this. So, well, thank you!

At any rate, there's more detailed commentary over on my blog about this chapter, and asking questions there will assuredly draw my attention.

Finally, one more administrative detail: any translation of the Vocaloids music that shows up in these stories will be my own. I expect most of the stuff that shows up here will be too fragmentary to use elsewhere in any great detail, but that doesn't mean you can claim it as your own, all the same. And on that note...

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Nanoha, nor do I own the Vocaloids characters, nor do I own any of the Vocaloids music.

* * *

The sun had set hours before, and yet my keyboard still clicked away incessantly as I hammered at the problem before me. Well, perhaps "problem" is the wrong word. Miku (or rather, the headphones into which I had installed Miku) sat on the analysis unit that was hooked up to my computer, hovering slightly in the field that it projected.

After what had happened at the training field, no one in the battalion had been particularly interested in having me around. Had I known that that company had been conducting training in dealing with high-power threats, or that letting Miku sing would have turned me _into_ one of those, perhaps things would have ended differently. And it was in fact my fault that I hadn't known what would happen. So now was the time to go back over the code and make damn sure there weren't any further surprises locked in there.

It was… not particularly easy or enjoyable. I had already glanced over this, and whoever had written this code had not been interested in making it understandable to anyone else. It's considered good practice to use comments to clarify what everything does, but none of Miku's code had any, not even the sections that could have been copy/pasted from any other device in existence. There was the possibility of that being just an idle mistake… "good practice" doesn't mean "required" after all. But I was starting to wonder if maybe whoever had written this didn't _want_ anyone else to be able to understand it.

Which didn't mean I couldn't make a damn good try at it. The spell database still existed, that I was sure of. Normally, though, that database would be designed to return the spell that the device's AI requested of it, pulling the necessary energy through what the user could provide and casting that spell directly without any intermediate steps. That wasn't how Miku's database was set up, of course. In fact, the database looked like it would only listen to requests regarding the music files that were part of her database. Better yet, it would only respond to two kinds of queries: list of music file names, and a request for spellcasting access with one of those music files.

"Well, I was definitely right earlier. You're not a normal Midchildan device AI," I told her idly.

"You've called me that twice now," she complained right back. "I don't even know what that's supposed to mean."

"Sorry," I apologized contritely. Or as contritely as I could manage given my distractions. "It's just, I've never seen an AI designed this… oddly."

"Am I damaged somehow?" she fretted. I could actually sort of tell she was worried by what I had said… the slight tickle in the back of my mind hadn't budged an inch since it had first manifested itself back on the training field. "Is there something I'm not doing right?"

"No, not at all," I replied idly. "This goes to whoever designed you; it's not something you have power over." After a long moment, I continued, "You _are_ aware that you're essentially the operating system for a device designed to assist spellcasting, right?"

"Is that what a Vocaloid is?" she asked me again, curiously.

Again with that word - "Vocaloid". Not one I had ever heard before. Was it just part of her personality files, or was that an actual designation? I couldn't open up the personality files without completely shutting Miku down, and I certainly wasn't about to do that without a damn good reason…

"No, not precisely. Actually I've never heard of these Vocaloids before… could you tell me what that means?"

"You haven't?" she asked me, with the slightest hint of a crestfallen note in her voice. "I thought… Never mind. Well… the Vocaloids are a series of AIs designed to produce music, either singly or in concert, with files designed to be read by our synthesis programs. As far as the Vocaloids are concerned, I am Version Two, code zero-one, ID Miku Hatsune."

"That's the only purpose? Music?" I asked sharply, filing away the rest of that for later consideration, like what happened to Version One. Right now, there was a much more serious question: had I made a mistake when I integrated this particular AI into an Intelligent Device? But there had been the incident at the training ground earlier… Did she not know her own strengths?

"Well, yes," Miku replied, interrupting my thoughts a little hesitantly. "My primary function is to take the data files that my master provides and turn them into music."

"Hold on a moment," I interrupted. Well, I don't know if she had more to say, but judging by the sense of slight irritation I was getting, I assumed she did. That wasn't the explanation I needed, though. First, the simple. "How do I provide you with a data file? Can I just copy music from my computer?"

"No, I have an edit system," Miku explained. "It doesn't seem to be able to access any of the files I have currently, but I suppose you could try to create a new one."

"Yeah, no," I told her directly. "I don't know the first thing about music. But that can't be all you can do… you do remember the training field, right? _That_ wasn't music."

"I know…" she sighed heavily. "I don't know what that was, either! I just… It was kind of instinct, I guess… I don't have any explanation for it!"

I could tell she was starting to… well, "panic" was the wrong word. It seemed like she wanted to answer me; that was clear enough. It was also clear that she couldn't.

"You don't need to worry about it," I stopped her before she got too much more out of sorts. "I do need to note that whatever the data you have access to indicates… you _are_ a device AI as well, capable of assisting with spellcasting in traditional Midchildan style."

"But what does that even _mean?_" she protested angrily.

… Wow. Whoever programmed her personality files left a _lot_ out.

"Okay, well…" I thought back to my academy days. "Most devices and their AIs, including you, are loaded with 'programs' that the device can execute, calling on the user's energy to produce a wide variety of effects. We usually simply refer to it as magic."

"And you're telling me I have these 'programs'?" Miku asked. "But… the only data files I have are the music files…"

"That's why you're not typical," I reminded her. "Normally a device AI will have direct access to its spell database. Your database, however, only permits access through those music files. Your ability as a device to control and direct energy is tied to your ability as a - Vocaloid, you called yourself? - to sing."

"Oh." Miku was silent for a long moment.

Needing no encouragement, I filled the space with further explanation. "Furthermore, somehow, that singing permits you to act as an amplifier as well. That's the part I'm trying to understand now, by looking at the code governing your spell database. Somehow, you took an amount of energy that wouldn't have blocked a punch and turned it into a barrier strong enough to turn aside an entire company's worth of full-power energy attacks. I'm trying to figure out how that happened."

"Well, I didn't even know that I could do anything like magic, so I don't see…"

I gave her a moment after she suddenly cut herself off, just long enough to realize that she was not going to continue. "Don't see what? How you could explain it, I assume?"

"Uhn…" A most unmusical groan came out of the speakers.

_That_ got my attention. "Is something the matter, Miku?"

"Just… I found… something." Before I could ask for details, she provided them. "Ritual… system…"

"Ritual system… RS? But what about the M…?" I muttered to myself.

"Ritual amplification program." she continued slowly, almost as if she was in pain. "Energy, directed in a specific pattern governed by a focus element… and given time… can be increased by orders of…" There was a long pause. In an only slightly more normal voice, she finally continued, "Nope, that's all I can remember."

I'm pretty sure my jaw dropped. What in the world was she talking about? "Um… Miku?"

"Sorry, I don't… know what that was, really," she told me, sounding distinctly shaken. "I guess, something explaining all this was on my system at some point, and that was left over after the file itself was deleted."

"… I want to see the rest of _that_ file," I sighed heavily. "I guess it's been overwritten by now."

"I don't!"

I mean, at this point I didn't think I had any remaining "shocked" capacity left. And yet I was still surprised. I could feel the waves of frustration practically rolling off of her.

"All I wanted to do," she sighed helplessly, "was to be able to sing for someone…"

"Pardon my ignorance…" I started slowly. "Why can't you take your edit system and create something to sing yourself?"

"I wouldn't know what to do with it either!" she almost wailed. "I know how to sing, but I need someone to tell me what to sing!" More softly, she continued, "I need _you_ to tell me what to sing…"

That froze me in my tracks. "Why-" I started to say. I had been planning to ask her why it was that I had to do that. The sound of someone hammering on my apartment's front door interrupted that.

Instantly, I fell silent, as a female voice yelled out "Bureau enforcer! Open the door!"

Miku didn't understand, not like I did. "Um, what was that?" she asked idly.

"At any other time," I hissed back, "someone looking to talk to me about some kind of investigation."

"What do you mean 'at any other time'?" she asked, too loudly for my taste.

"Open the door immediately!" the voice yelled again.

"I'm willing to bet that this is about _you_, Miku!" I bluntly informed her, snatching the headphones off the analysis unit and settling them on my head.

"I will force the door-"

"All right, all right, I'll get the door!" I yelled back, cutting the enforcer off.

Miku sounded worried as she asked, "Wait, what's going to happen to me, then?"

"If I have any say in the matter, nothing," I told her. "But we'll see."

With that, I finally got to the door and opened it, to reveal a sight I had never in my wildest dreams imagined I'd be seeing. It wasn't just any Bureau enforcer standing outside. No, I was looking at Fate Testarossa Harlaown, one of the heroes of the JS Incident, S+ class mage and an absolutely relentless enforcer. Oh, and it looked like she had been about to make good on the promise to break down the door… considering that her Intelligent Device, Bardiche, was in her hands and pointed at where the door had been. That is to say, pointed directly at me. Throw in the barrier jacket that she had equipped, and I was starting to feel a distinct lack of confidence in my ability to deal with _this_ problem.

"Um… Is there something I can do for you?" I asked as politely as I could manage with a weapon pointed at me. Mentally, I tried to get something across to Miku. _I think you might want to just start singing now…_

There was a long pause, Fate staring at me and me staring right back, while I prayed that Miku had "heard" me. Finally, into the silence, her own voice echoed faintly in my head. _Do I need to set up first?_

_You'll need to set up before I can effectively use the spell,_ I shot right back, _but this'll turn into a fight the instant you do that. So if you can, just start singing for now._

"You're the Sergeant serving as one of the primary mechanics for the 42nd Battalion, correct?" Fate asked me curtly.

"Yes…" I replied just as shortly.

"And your commanding officer has been sending a number of interesting inquiries to headquarters regarding something that you found just recently." It was a statement, not a question.

Well, damn. Should have realized that any public searching for information was bound to draw attention. Still, attention from Fate?

_It's asking for authorization again,_ Miku grumbled.

_You have it._ "Is there something I should be saying here, or have you already decided what's going to happen?" I shot back almost angrily. Perhaps this wasn't the best time for my dislike of authority to be showing up, but I never said it was controllable.

"You will surrender the data chip that you found to me," Fate replied implacably. "You will then come with me."

"No and no," I shot back instantly, as the soft strains of the same song from the training field began to echo in the air around me. "I can't give you the data chip without destroying my new device, and that is _not_ going to happen. As for the latter," I continued furiously, "I'm reasonably certain that picking something up off the ground isn't something for which I can be arrested!"

Fate's expression tightened. To herself, she whispered, "I knew the new device couldn't have been a coincidence." More openly, she continued, "In that case, I will be forced to take you and your new device into custody. You are in possession of a potentially dangerous magical artifact, and this is for your own safety. Do not attempt to resist. Otherwise…"

As she finished her statement, she held out Bardiche, which shifted into a new form. A yellow scythe blade of energy materialized from its head.

"I'm still not convinced that you have the right to be doing this," I complained to her. "When will I be informed of the charges against me, then?"

Fate was silent, with an expression of clear distaste. That was when I realized.

"There aren't any, are there," I stated with rising anger.

"For your own safety, I need you to come with me," Fate demanded again, with only the tiniest crack in her confidence. As if she was trying to convince herself, rather than me…

Proudly, I shot back, "You can either explain that, or arrest me here and now for whatever crimes I may have committed. Until then, I'm not-"

A rush of air. The metallic clatter of a weapon being put to use. The tip of that yellow energy blade, a quarter inch from my throat. An empty space in front of me where she had been standing a second before. And I had never even seen her move.

Yeah. This was going to go _real_ well.

Had I been thinking clearly, perhaps I would have acknowledged that and gone quietly. But I was angry. Here I was, about to be arrested by an ace Bureau enforcer for… picking up a data chip off the ground? It made no sense!

To this day I don't know whether Miku simply picked up on what I was feeling, or whether she made the decision herself. All I know is that in the next instant, both of us heard her voice.

"Start sequence complete!"

I don't actually know what happened in that first, confused second. Had Fate not realized that the headphones were my Intelligent Device, and thus thought that I was completely unarmed? Had Miku's decision to act essentially on her own in setting up taken her by surprise? Or perhaps some measure of mercy had caused her to hesitate before she actually took the strike?

Whatever the reason, Fate's blow came an instant too late, landing not on me but on the barrier that formed around me as my barrier jacket and device deployed. To me, it looked as if I was surrounded by a field of teal-colored light, just as on the training field. To her, well… at the range in question, the expanding barrier probably hit her pretty hard. We'd see how that turned out. Even if it seemed otherwise from the "inside", the setup process only took a second or two, so Fate hadn't had time to hit anything solid yet.

As the device itself deployed, I mentally reminded Miku, _We're going to _need_ a barrier jacket this time._

_But_… she protested.

_Use whatever materials you like_, I told her sternly, _and adapt whatever designs you have to match my uniform as closely as you can manage._

_I can only do so much!_ she protested helplessly.

As she finished speaking, a wave of energy washed over my clothing. In an instant, my typical uniform was replaced with a grayish-silvery shirt and long black pants. A blue necktie settled into place, and long black sleeves materialized over my lower arms. I had a moment to realize that the visor on the headphones was no longer present, glancing down to the sleeves and the screen that was somehow built into the right-hand one.

In the next instant, I felt the defensive field fading, and dove forward. The light shattered around me as I flew out the open door of the apartment. A crash sounded behind me as I landed in a crouch outside the door, and I glanced back to where Fate was picking herself up out of a pile of wreckage where my computer had been sitting. I took a moment to curse my horrible luck… and then froze in surprise as Miku's song echoed outward.

Before I had set up, it was little more than a light background element, barely audible. Now, though, it could probably be heard through most of the apartment building. And I paused for a moment as I realized that something was different.

Oh, she was singing the same thing as before. At least as far as I could tell, because the words themselves were no more understandable the second time around. But there was still that connection to Miku that hadn't quite been there before. It wasn't the usual translation method that I was familiar with… it was more like I could hear what Miku was thinking as she sang.

_I am not yet complete  
__Until I have sung all of your songs…_

The moment passed as Fate stood up. I instantly refocused on the immediate threat, but she didn't seem to be attacking immediately, just staring at me in surprise. "What have you _done_ with that device?" she asked me incredulously.

"Don't look at me," I shot back, as the music began fading out. "She was like this when I found her. And I have to say, it works out just fine for me…"

"Warning," Bardiche cut in. "Over-S magical power levels detected. Threat index unknown."

"How…? You're C rank!" Fate gasped.

"Back off, ma'am," I stated coldly, taking a step forward as a teal-colored circle flared into brightly glowing life at my feet. "Go back and tell whoever had this 'dangerous magical artifact' that they've forfeited any right to work together with Miku."

Fate merely stared, and there was a brief, shining moment where I thought she might actually back down. Then her expression hardened, and her composure reasserted itself. "I'm sorry."

I tried to say something, force her back into a conversation. But I didn't make it in time.

Bardiche came down. "Plasma Smasher!" Fate yelled to the heavens, and a veritable tidal wave of yellow energy erupted from the air in front of her, filling my entire front corridor.

I had the time to curse before bringing my hand up frantically. "Protection MRS!" I screamed desperately, bracing myself for the impact.

I'm pretty sure that the entire building shook when her attack hit my shield. I had to shield my eyes from the flare of light that the clashing energies produced, in fact. It felt like I was locked in place, my hand reinforcing the steadily weakening shield as a seemingly never-ending tide of magical force washed over it.

Finally, the inevitable occurred. I practically felt the first crack that flashed through the barrier, almost straight down the middle. Scraps of the beam attack leaked through the barrier and lashed across my chest, thankfully blunted by my clearly functional barrier jacket. As Fate's attack began to fade, I desperately drudged up the necessary focus to put together a reply.

See, you don't precisely _need_ a device to cast magic, it just makes it easier. Since Miku couldn't really do anything to assist with my attack, I'd have to handle that myself. I returned fire with a trio of energy bolts, bursting out of my own weakened barricade and lashing out at Fate.

Her Plasma Smasher had already begun to fade. I had a brief moment to exult in the fact that I was still standing after an S+ ranked mage's attack… and then my attack reached Fate, just as she lowered Bardiche.

She didn't even move. Didn't raise a shield, didn't even try to dodge. The three bolts arrowed in and slammed into Fate's barrier jacket. And that was it. Fate just stood there, not fazed in the slightest.

I could only stare. If she wasn't going to back down, I'd have to make her back down. And she could have found no better way to prove how likely _that_ was.

"Um… Start singing again?" I asked Miku a little sheepishly.

Fear and uncertainty were radiating off of her. "I'd never finish in time, would I," she stated as much as asked.

"No, not really," I admitted.

Almost before I had finished speaking, a ring of energy bolts flashed into existence around Fate, firing almost as soon as they appeared. I had another moment to contemplate the impossibility of fighting a mage so far beyond my own level before fire cascaded through me, causing the world to go black.

* * *

Fate sighed heavily as her fellow Bureau employee collapsed to the ground, barrier jacket and device disengaging as they lost their source of energy.

_How did _that_ happen?_ she asked herself again. _A C-rank mage, and he blocked a shot from my Plasma Smasher…? Perhaps this "research project" really is as dangerous as Doctor Haynes was suggesting…_

She shook her head to clear it slightly as she stepped over to the unconscious Bureau sergeant, disarming her own weapon as she did so. "Bardiche, prepare to record a message for transmission to Doctor Haynes."

After a moment, her device replied, "Ready."

"Doctor, I have tracked down the Bureau mechanic who came into possession of your research project, and defeated him. You were correct in that he would not surrender it willingly, but I have doubts as to whether he was truly under compulsion, as you believed would be the case. However, as ordered, I will be bringing him and his device to your facilities, once I receive confirmation from you that you are ready for his arrival. End message."

"Message recorded. Send?"

"No, hold on one moment," Fate replied. She paused for a long moment, staring off into the night sky, before she finally spoke again. "Prepare to record a message for transmission to Admiral Harlaown."

"Are you sure?" Bardiche queried dispassionately.

"I'm not convinced that he actually knows what's happening here, and I don't think he would have given that Doctor Haynes so much authority if he did," Fate replied uncertainly. "Just do it."

"Yes sir," her device responded. "Ready."

"Admiral, I believe my mission under Doctor Haynes is nearing its conclusion, and I must admit to some doubts about the orders he has issued to me," Fate began. "If he truly has your full confidence, then I will complete my mission without complaint, but I believe he has overstepped his bounds in dealing with this situation. And I believe that he may be abusing the broad authority of an Enforcer to illegally circumvent the procedures that would otherwise have to be satisfied before normal authorities could take action. Please advise. End message."

"Message recorded." Bardiche paused for a moment, and then continued, "Given the time of night, it is likely that neither Doctor Haynes nor Admiral Harlaown will immediately receive your message."

"Send the message to Doctor Haynes," Fate instructed. Pausing for a brief moment, she continued, "Flag the message to Admiral Harlaown as high priority, then send it as well."

"Both messages have been sent," Bardiche informed her.

_All right_, Fate sighed heavily. _Hopefully Chrono gets my message before-_

"Incoming call from Doctor Haynes," Bardiche reported.

"What?" Fate burst out in surprise. "Was he just sitting there waiting for word or something?" With a heavy sigh, she continued, "Accept the call, Bardiche."

There was a moment of silence, and then the doctor's voice filled the air. "Fate, I just got your message. Excellent work. You can bring him in right now, actually; you do know where the lab is, correct?"

Fate paused for a long moment. "Yes, I have that information. But, I need to at least wait until the police arrive to make my report-"

"Enforcer…" Doctor Haynes cut her off. "Again, you have your orders. Orders that, I might add, stem in the end from Admiral Harlaown's direct authority. I have been keeping him informed of the situation, and neither he nor I will appreciate it if you delay this matter."

Fate's eyes narrowed sharply, and she glared at Bardiche as if her stare could be seen through the audio-only call. _He's been keeping Chrono informed?_ she thought suspiciously, replying at the same time with, "I understand."

"Good! I'll expect you within the hour then." Without so much as a farewell, the call cut off, leaving Fate standing there in the wreckage of the apartment's entryway.

_I don't have enough,_ Fate admitted to herself angrily. _I don't _like_ him, and I'm not confident that Chrono actually knows what he's doing… but I have no proof that he's doing anything wrong._

"Nothing from Admiral Harlaown?" she asked Bardiche almost hopefully.

"Nothing," her device reported.

With yet another heavy sigh, Fate walked over to the unconscious Sergeant. _All I can do is carry out my orders and hope that Chrono gets back to me soon with new ones._


	4. The Research Facility

**Author's Note:** And on we go, to the next chapter of Midchildan Music. I think it's about time that everyone's cards were laid face up on the table...

If you want a more extensive accounting of my thoughts on this chapter, my blog (my homepage on my profile here) has a longer and more detailed "chapter notes".

Hope you all enjoy the chapter, and let me know what you think!

* * *

I woke up with the worst headache I have ever had in my life. And I wish that was just an exaggeration.

Groaning, I sat up slowly. Someone had left me on a couch in what looked like a small waiting room. Actually, it could have been someone's living room, except for the transparently fake decorative plants and the small end table with a stack of magazines. Oh, and there was a slight lack of windows too. In fact, there were only two doors, one each on my left and right, embedded in steel walls that would have looked more at home on a warship than in a waiting room. And the doors themselves looked sleekly modern in design, thin sheets of metal that just coincidentally could have stopped a light anti-armor unit dead in its tracks.

Yeah. The "waiting room" crap was real damned cute, but this was nothing more than a reinforced cell in a heavily fortified facility.

That was when I remembered what I had been doing immediately prior to this. _That_ realization woke me up real fast. Better yet, it got me to search the entire room in detail. Let's just say that there were couch cushions and upended tables everywhere by the time I was done. And guess what wasn't anywhere in the room with me?

The headphones were gone. My new Intelligent Device… Miku Hatsune… she was nowhere to be found.

The devastation in the room after my rushed search suited my black mood. How best to put it… Way back when in primary school, they told us how important it was to try. That even if you failed, you could console yourself with knowing that you had put in the effort.

They're full of crap. I had failed. Trying is great and all, but once something is in pieces it doesn't really matter how it got to be that way, or how hard you tried to stop it. All it is is the end of the line.

Worse yet, she had trusted me. A device that had absolutely no reason to! And this is how I repay her. I left her behind in my apartment. I failed to understand what she wanted. And now…

The hiss of a door opening saved me from my self-pitying monologue. My gaze snapped over to the door on my left, where a short yet powerfully built man fixed me with his own vaguely amused gaze as he stepped through the now-open portal. A neat, buttoned shirt and simple red tie lent an oddly pedestrian air to him, as if I was looking at any other 9-to-5 wage slave in the world.

Somehow I seriously doubted he was some random tech though. That's kind of why I charged at him, arms reaching for his collar. "What have you-"

An ice-blue energy bolt caught me right in the forehead, tossing me to the floor in a haze of pain. Shaking my head to clear it, I looked up to see a tall, blue-haired man stepping into the room behind the first intruder.

He spoke up first. "Now, now, Kaito. We do need him alive."

"Very well," the second man, apparently Kaito, replied tonelessly. This "Kaito" was dressed in a long white jacket with blue trim and yellow highlights on the sleeves. Oddly enough, his hair as well was bright blue in a shade to match the jacket's trim. Through that hair, I could make out the black, almost boxlike headphones covering his ears, and there was a small microphone built in… the connection was apparent.

"Let me guess," I snarled as I got up, gesturing to Kaito. "Version One."

"You _are_ a sharp one!" the first man whistled in patently overdone admiration. "But I have yet to introduce myself. I am Doctor Richard Haynes, and I am the administrator of this humble research facility."

"Humble?" I snorted in disbelief. "You forget, I'm a device technician. If someone was doing research on new devices, I would have noticed… unless it was either illegal or top-secret. Neither of those are 'humble', you pretentious-"

"Surely there's no call for that kind of language?" Doctor Haynes cut me off smoothly. "I should be thanking you! You've finally provided me with the last piece I needed to perfect my Version Two. I have no quarrel with you!"

I glared, masking my confusion behind a storm of anger. "The hell do you mean, I helped you? Screw that! We're not friends, not after you arranged to have someone come and beat me up for taking better care of Miku than you ever bothered to arrange!"

"Truly, I am hurt by your words," Haynes shot back, with an open-handed shrug. "Does my Kaito here look so badly mistreated?"

Given the excuse, I examined Kaito more carefully. He didn't react at all to my scrutiny, not even to glance back at me. His gaze stayed solidly fixed on the hands at my sides, as if he was preparing to react at a moment's notice.

"I mean," Haynes continued with exaggerated patience, "you'll have to explain his current demeanor; I may have ordered him to keep a close eye on you and to protect me from harm. The Version Ones tend to be very… focused… when it comes to my orders."

"You slime," I snarled angrily, raising my fists. "You're talking about a person, one that's standing right there, and-"

A wave of energy pulsed outward, and a dark blue magic circle formed in light at Kaito's feet. Energy flowed over his form in bluish waves as the first strains of music began to echo outward.

"Go on," Haynes smirked, having taken a few steps back while I was distracted. "Try to hurt me. I have every confidence that I can hold you off for the five minutes it will take for Kaito to finish."

"You can't be serious!" I laughed out loud. "Five minutes?"

A moment of quiet gave way to what sounded vaguely like some kind of stringed instrument, followed by trumpets. Haynes merely smirked. "As it turns out, I'll be needing the spell anyway. Since clearly you don't seem to be interested in working with me."

"What?" I snarled angrily, turning to Kaito. He began to sing in that instant, words echoing through the small, enclosed chamber. Two steps brought me to the edge of the glowing magic circle, where I promptly ran headlong into what felt like a solid wall.

"One of the few differences between the Version One and Version Two musical ritual systems," Haynes taunted mockingly. "The Version One, designed for use by an artificial mage specially designed for the ritual system's demands, draws off some of the ritual's energy to form a barrier."

Turning back to the now openly sneering Doctor, I cursed angrily. "What the hell do you need from me then?"

"Oh, nothing really," he smirked. "As long as you're still around when we're ready for our next experiment, that's enough."

I bit back my first, angry response and tried to bring myself under control. Trying to appear reasonable, I muttered, "Well, I suppose if you wanted me to help you…"

"Would you?" Haynes smirked again victoriously. "Kaito, you can cancel the ritual."

The music cut off instantly, almost in mid-note. The light show surrounding Kaito faded instantly, scattering into the air around him in a shimmering bluish haze.

"I'm so pleased to have the one who gave my Version Two its first field test helping me to perfect it!" Haynes told me, in a tone that _almost_ sounded sincere.

It became markedly easier to conceal my snarl when I turned my thoughts to how best to make him regret that moment for the rest of his hopefully short life.

* * *

Another door hissed open, and Haynes and his apparent bodyguard Kaito led me into another cell-like room. Trying to memorize the layout of the building had gotten me nowhere; I hadn't seen anything like a front door or any kind of windows throughout the entire trip, just a maze of plain white corridors and doors. There was a stairway or two in there as well somewhere, I think.

Point was, I couldn't have gotten anywhere else in the building if I had tried. And this room was competing with that ridiculous waiting room in terms of boredom. It, in fact, had only one thing going for it, but that one thing was worth every bit of furniture in the other room.

A functioning computer, login prompt blinking invitingly.

Haynes smiled at me again, probably because he caught the instant in which my eyes lit up. "Now, there are a few… functional limitations I should be telling you about."

"Oh?" I struggled not to snarl too much, since I was theoretically trying to stay on his good side.

"Most importantly, I should mention that this computer has been completely disconnected from the network," Haynes informed me. He smirked again, much more cruelly this time. "I'm sure you would cause me no end of problems if I gave you a computer that was connected to the laboratory network, so…"

Internally, I sighed. It would have been too much to hope for that I could have gotten away with actually attacking the lab's network, but it would have been nice to be able to _try_. "Isn't that going to make it difficult for me to access data I might need?"

"All of the data you'll need is already on the computer," Haynes chided me. "You have read-only copies of Version 2-01's source code and current data, and I'll be sending the lead programmer over to assist you in understanding it."

"Miku's designer?" I asked intently, curiosity piqued.

"Indeed," Haynes replied. "I'm sure we can spare him for a little while to help you understand what you're looking at."

I paused for a moment while Haynes turned to the computer and typed something into the keyboard. As he turned away, I gave him an icy glare. "Why are you bothering with all of this?" I demanded, steadily losing patience with the entire facade.

I was beginning to think that Haynes had no facial expressions other than a self-satisfied smirk. "Do I need a reason?"

"Yes!" The word burst out before I could stop myself.

"In that case," Haynes's expression became mildly pensive (and still smirking slightly) as he continued, "have you considered the possibility that you do have a perspective on our design that the rest of us lack?"

"What's that, actually giving a damn about her?" I shot back.

"Perhaps."

Well, I still thought it was utter bullshit, but what if it wasn't? It's not like I could simply ignore the chance. Slowly, I walked over to the active computer terminal and sat down at the provided seat, scanning the screen for relevant information. As promised, Miku's original source code sat neatly organized into folders.

Honestly, I barely even noticed as Haynes and that Kaito left the room; I was too busy opening up some of the files. The data on the computer screen was vaguely familiar, but different all the same. Last time I had been looking at this code, I had been looking at an approximation of it, produced by working backwards from the actual program itself. This was the code itself. Needing no further encouragement, I began opening files and scanning through them at a frantic pace.

"Enjoying yourself?"

I couldn't say how long it was before this new voice intervened. Probably a few minutes or so, I guess. Anyway, I spun around in surprise.

"Hey, I'm Michael." The man standing behind me—Michael—looked about as utterly normal as people ever got. Dark hair, dark eyes. T-shirt and jeans, of all things. Completely nondescript face. I'd never be able to pick him out of a crowd.

"You wrote all this?" I asked.

"Well, most of it," he told me, taking advantage of a second chair next to the computer terminal. "I'm the one behind the Musical Ritual System and the Vocaloid personality programming, most importantly."

I have to admit, in that instant I felt a spike of dislike for the man. He was clearly a better device technician than I would ever be, but there was something about him that seemed a little off.

Setting that aside for the moment, I brought up the source code for the spell database and copied it en masse into a new file that I _could_ edit. "Why don't you explain to me what I'm looking at then."

"Certainly," Michael replied affably. "Basically, this spell database is altered significantly to allow for the ritual system's presence. With some experimentation, we determined that magical energy could be increased by orders of magnitude given a set pattern and a focus. These commands here are the actual energy control routines necessary to make that happen."

"Why music?" I asked curiously.

"Well…" Michael began. "No particular reason. The role of the focus element is to provide a variable structure to the pattern; a closed loop is nothing more than a Belkan-style energy cartridge. Opening the pattern allows for an actual energy gain, both through the gathering of ambient energy and through the generation of additional energy beyond what should usually be possible."

I frowned heavily. "That opens so many questions. If gathering ambient energy is part of this, does that mean repeated rituals in the same place will lose effectiveness? And is this really more effective than simply charging up a spell over a long period of time? For that matter, why does the rate of energy gain change based on the focus element?"

Michael held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, slow down for a moment. First, we suspect that the ambient energy draw is only a fraction of the ritual's effectiveness. Perhaps you could find yourself losing power over time, but it would take a very long time of constant activity.

"As for the charging, well, part of the answer to that is that there's a definite limit on how much energy a mage can actually channel. One that can be increased with training, yes, but a limit nevertheless. By locking some—well, actually, most—of the energy into the ritual pattern, that reduces the strain on the mage casting the spell, or the device channeling it in the Version Two's case.

"Finally, since the focus element directs the pattern, the changes in the focus element change how much energy can be developed and stored at any given moment."

I sat in silence for a moment, absorbing the information. Then I smiled wryly. "Are you sure your boss wants you to tell me all of this?"

Michael frowned in confusion. "Hmm? I thought you'd be working with me to upgrade the Version Two system."

"Well, yes…" I hedged. "Did you, um, lose one of the Version Two AIs recently?"

"How'd you know?" Michael asked in surprise. "The only prototype AI chip up and vanished just three days ago. You can imagine my surprise when I plugged the chip into the computer yesterday morning and found that it was a faked copy of the case with none of the actual data. Unfortunately, by that time, the actual chip was gone. I heard Security was looking into it…"

"Well," I told him somewhat cockily, "I may have found that chip and installed it into an Intelligent Device before I knew what it was."

He just stared. "You… But… I mean… That was never intended for an Intelligent Device! And it was incomplete!"

"Oh, I noticed," I told him acidly. "For one thing, all of the files in the spell database were still encrypted."

"Doctor Haynes suggested that," Michael informed me. "He said that if anyone else got a hold of our data, that that would slow them down until we could deal with the leak."

"And then I think your personality design was just a little bit strange, too," I fired off.

_Now_ his expression adopted a distinct sense of wounded pride. "Excuse me? How so?"

"You gave her a brand new weapon and then told her nothing about it, no?" I argued. "You can't tell me that was intentional!"

"Actually…" Michael began, as I skewered him with a withering glare. "At first I gave her a detailed description of her capabilities, as you might expect, and a baseline personality."

"What changed?"

"Well, one of the design goals was to create a less visible yet still effective spellcasting tool," Michael explained. "To reduce the visibility of the ritual system and the power of its spellcasting assist, I redesigned the personality to make it seem as if the AI was intended for a different purpose entirely, including a much more detailed personality file."

"Doesn't that decrease the AI's ability to deal with combat, though?" I pointed out a little angrily. "Setting aside the change in the AI's desires?"

"It was expected that the AI's owner would be aware of its full capabilities," Michael replied with a hint of defensiveness. "And I did include an interrupt function that would momentarily disable the formation of memory data during the spellcasting process."

I bit back a sharp comment. The temptation was there. I could have laid into him for essentially creating her personality and her desires knowing all along that they were destined to be overridden.

There was an easier solution than yelling at him for it.

"Well…" I began. "Shall I start going over what I want to try to do?" At a nod from him, I laid down the most important upgrade.

"First, I want to alter the database slightly to allow the AI to call music files without activating the ritual system."

"To what end?" Michael asked slowly. "I mean, it's certainly possible, but…"

"You were the one that coded her personality," I told him, slowly and deliberately. "You should know what she wants."

There was a long pause. I stared fixedly at Michael; he met my gaze for a brief moment before averting his eyes. "Okay. Was that it, though?" he finally conceded.

"No, there's a few other things, all related to the ritual system. How extensive can the pattern be?" I asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Is there any reason why you couldn't continue on to a second song? Prepare two spells, or double up the energy supply on one?" I clarified.

"Possibly…" Michael hedged, rubbing his chin. "That'll demand more processing power, but we might have enough to spare. Probably require some extensive revision of the code."

"Also, if the section of the song determines the energy gain rate, is there a reason why we can't start wherever we like in the song? Or end wherever we like, as well?" I pointed out.

"Why would you want to?" he shot back. "That would decrease total ritual time and thus reduce the amount of available energy."

I shook my head patronizingly. "Having been in an actual fight, I can say with confidence that pure power is only useful if it doesn't take minutes on end to charge. Even a few _seconds_ is often more time than you have to spare."

Michael nodded almost unwillingly. "I guess I can see what you're saying. I can't imagine that should be hard to design, so…"

"Excellent," I said eagerly. "Let's get started."

* * *

It took hours, actually. One of the programs on the computer was a simulation routine that allowed us to test out the effects of the changes we were making. There were revisions and miscues and bugs everywhere…

Given that there were no windows, I had no idea what time it was. I was captured in the middle of the night, so depending on how long I had been out, I was thinking that it could be anywhere from early morning to late evening of the next day.

But we finally finished. All of the upgrades that I wanted - chain, variable, and interrupt. Plus the database change that would allow Miku to just sing without casting a spell. I kept waiting for Michael to reveal some dictate from on high or make some kind of change to our plans, but he just helped me work with the code the whole time.

And now it was finished, and I realized there was a new problem.

"How are we installing this upgrade?" I asked a little sheepishly.

"Oh, I designed a patch utility already," Michael told me. "I never intended the original design to be the last word. Here." As he said the last word, he took out a data storage chip and plugged it into the computer.

Checking the files, I found it did indeed have some kind of executable file already on it. "So what, I should just copy the revised source code onto here?" I asked, shocked.

"Sure, why not?" Michael asked.

_There is no way Haynes wanted me this close to creating an actual upgrade,_ I thought wildly. _This has to be a trap of some-_

Suddenly a mechanical voice broke into my thought process. "Michael Davidson to the main analysis room," some PA system announced tonelessly. It repeated its announcement once more as Michael glanced up and around in surprise.

"Oh, um…" Michael stuttered, clearly surprised. "Guess I'm needed elsewhere. You can wrap up things here, right?"

"No," I said, deadpan. "I can't copy files to a disc without close supervision to ensure that I don't screw things up."

There was dead silence. Michael just stared.

I sighed heavily. "It was sarcasm, obviously. Go on."

Still shaking his head slightly, Michael headed out in a hurry, and I was left watching files copy to the data chip that he had left me. As the data transfer finished, I ordered up a second. I figured, maybe I could hide the chip or something and get as much out of this as possible, and so I ended up copying over the current data as well, along with some of the source code. I couldn't save every scrap of source code, but I was able to back up all of Miku's current data, which I assumed was a "snapshot" of Miku taken when I had been captured.

There were faint stirrings of sound. Something from outside the door. And it sounded faintly musical, which couldn't possibly be a good sign. Taking the chip out of the computer, I tucked it into a pocket and searched for the computer's off key.

That's about when the door behind me exploded in a blaze of blue light. I was caught completely unaware. My first sign that anything was wrong was the feeling of pain as a hammer blow caught me in the back and tossed me over the computer terminal and into the far wall. The echoing boom of a heavy magical attack and the cacophony of cracking sounds (coming from the door, the wall that I smashed into, and probably several of my bones as well) left me momentarily deafened.

I maintained the presence of mind to look up at the now utterly destroyed door. Considering that I could still sort of move and wasn't coughing up blood, I was guessing that none of my bones were _actually_ broken, but it damned well felt like it. The refuge of sleep—unconsciousness, rather—beckoned invitingly as an alternative to the pain.

Anger staved that off quite effectively as Haynes stepped into the room. "Why in hell?" I asked somewhat weakly.

"Didn't I tell you? We didn't actually need anything out of you. Not your cooperation, and certainly not whatever virus you designed to shut down my research," Haynes told me coldly. "We just need you here. In fact, this will probably go more smoothly if you're not yelling at me throughout."

I tried to curse him, I really did. Unfortunately, getting slammed into a wall by a magical explosion is somewhat detrimental to remaining conscious.

The last thing I heard was Haynes. "Kaito, while you're here, reduce that computer to ashes for me."

But as I fainted, the corners of my mouth twitched slightly into a smile.

* * *

"Something seems off, Michael," Doctor Haynes asked mildly. "Shouldn't you be pleased? We're finally doing what you've been pushing for this whole time."

The two of them stood in a reinforced control room of sorts, surrounded by computer terminals and displays. One entire wall was devoted to a window, covered by a shutter at the moment. Several technicians scattered throughout the room tapped away at the computer terminals, ignoring the conversation taking place in the center of the room.

"I've been pushing for you to show me the research on Unison Devices," Michael replied with a trace of irritation. "You keep saying that it's top secret and can't be shown around…"

"Well, why don't you think about it for a moment," Haynes shot back silkily. "How many times has a Unison Device been created in recent memory?"

"Zero," Michael shot back instantly. "Almost none even exist!"

"Really? Then what about those fine young heroes of the JS Incident?"

That set Michael back on his heels for a moment. "That's not an exception, though," he eventually recovered. "Her name was Hayate? Her device was a creation of Ancient Belka."

"Your misconception is fully understandable," Haynes smirked. "And if I had the ability to research Hayate, her Reinforce Zwei, and how _she_ created the replacement for the original version, I would." Michael stared in surprise as Haynes continued, "It wasn't Reinforce Zwei I was referring to, though, but one of the other individuals related to that incident. There was another Unison Device, one Agito…"

Michael adopted a pensive posture. "There was something in the news about that. Something about some people getting probation and others refusing amnesty and going to jail and… I don't really remember all that well."

"Indeed?" Haynes asked him. "You should keep a closer eye on things that relate to your profession. Especially when someone, perhaps your boss, has access to the records from a laboratory that may have conducted research on a certain Unison Device in the past…"

Michael sighed heavily. "You're being evasive again," he snapped. "You're not telling me what design element I'm missing in the creation of something that could be called a Unison Device. Even the advanced-AI devices that I create are still weapon-type Intelligent Devices, just smarter than usual."

"Would it surprise you," Doctor Haynes asked calmly, "if I told you that a true Unison Device that can be used in an auxiliary control role will have its own Linker Core?"

Michael's eyes widened in understanding. "That's why you've been running work related to that Project Fate, then!" he hissed quietly. "And why you had me creating personality and memory coding on its model rather than the typical AI model."

"And the light dawns," Doctor Haynes smiled. "Unfortunately, there was an element missing from the Version Ones. Which isn't to say that artificial mages with implanted personalities can't be _useful_, but they are not the Unison Devices that I wanted to create."

"But then the Version Two…" Michael began. "I am shocked it worked in a standard Intelligent Device at all. The code—"

"Would create a personality profile," Haynes pointed out. "That was its intent. I have no doubt that cracks would begin to appear as that personality came to grips with its existence as a machine rather than a 'person', so to speak, but for the 48 hours in which it had to exist, I wouldn't expect any problems."

There was a long pause as they glanced over the action in the control room surrounding them. One of the techs walked up and said "We should be ready to begin shortly."

With a nod, Michael dismissed him. "I still don't understand why his role is _this_ of all things. I actually thought he was going to help with the code. Why can't we have one of us take this role?"

Haynes frowned. "Unfortunately, here we do run into questions. What is the role of compatibility in the formation and use of a Unison Device? How interconnected must the Device be with its potential master or masters? Unison Devices can be autonomous, as Agito demonstrates, but our only other example is a case in which the Device is clearly _not_ entirely separate from its master." With a grimace, he finished off, "Short of going to Hayate and asking to conduct research on her, I have no way of knowing any of these things."

Michael asked almost lazily, "Why not do that?"

At that, Haynes laughed, short and sharp. "Have you forgotten how illegal most of this research is, Michael?"

"Right," Michael replied, face darkening in anger. "Just like the Bureau to outlaw the tools necessary to explore a field of Device research that has such potential."

"At any rate," Haynes continued, "given the uncertainty, I felt it wisest to use someone that shows a clear affinity and ability to form a bond with our base personality code."

"How do we control him in the end, then?" Michael pointed out. "If the goal is to create a weapon that we can use, we can't have him or the Version Two doing what they like."

"You needn't worry about that," Haynes informed him with a positively predatory smile. "I have… made some arrangements."

With a rattling clank, the shutter covering the control room's window began to open. "We're ready to proceed!" one of the technicians reported.

Haynes's smile only widened. "So, Michael, the chance I promised you, to create a Midchildan-style Unison Device; the next step of Device technology brought about by our joint efforts. Shall we?"

* * *

A streak of yellow light split the early-morning sky. An expansive forest blurred by below as Fate flew back toward the capital city. Off in the distance, skyscrapers glittered in the rising sun. The quiet tranquility of the moment was then abruptly broken by a tone from Bardiche.

"You have an incoming call from Admiral Harlaown," it reported neutrally.

Fate's reaction was much less restrained. "Finally," she nearly exploded. "Chrono-"

"Fate." Chrono's voice was frigid as he cut Fate off. "I don't like what I'm hearing in your last report. Why is this the first thing I hear from you?"

Fate was struck dumb for a moment in shock. "I- Doctor Haynes said that he was keeping you informed?"

"He hasn't been," Chrono told her. "I haven't heard a word from either of you since I assigned you to his case."

Dead silence dominated the line for a moment as Fate came to an abrupt halt, hovering in the air with a shocked expression. "Then he lied to me," Fate informed Chrono mildly.

"_What_ exactly has he been having you do?" Chrono demanded.

The story was short and to the point. It left Chrono's voice almost audibly smoking with outrage.

"I can see I need to talk to Richard Haynes in person," he growled. "Fate, if you could arrange that?"

"Of course," she replied, satisfaction evident in her voice.

"Secure his research lab as well," Chrono told her. "I want to know what he's been up to. I'm sending reinforcements now to help you secure the facility, but I need you there right now to bring him into custody."

"Roger that."

A streak of yellow light split the early-morning sky, heading back in the direction it had come from.


	5. Miku Append

**Author's Note:** Wow. Okay, I think I have a few things to say. Starting with "my sincerest apologies". It's been over two years since first posting this story, and one and a half since the last update. In that time, I've had the final part of Midchildan Music mostly written and ready for publishing. I really don't have much of any excuse for keeping you all waiting, and I rather suspect that most of the people reading this had assumed I had simply abandoned it without fanfare, which I guess a lot of fanfic writers end up doing.

Going into this, I'd say I was worried about that happening and wanted to try and avoid it. Clearly, I failed. So... yeah. My apologies. Life happened, I guess. Somehow, I ended up prioritizing everything else over polishing and posting the final chapter of this story.

There is a reason I'm pulling this out again after a year or more of inactivity, and it has to do with what I did last November. Given what happened to this story, I won't make any promises... but if you do potentially want to see more Vocaloids as Nanoha-verse Devices, I recommend keeping an eye out.

For those of you that have just now come to this story, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy it. For those of you that have been waiting (eagerly or otherwise) for this conclusion, again, you have my apologies, and I hope you won't judge me too harshly for it.

And please read, review, and enjoy this, the final chapter of Midchildan Music.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Nanoha, any of the Vocaloids characters, or any of the Vocaloids music.

* * *

Someone suggested to me once that you save hyperbole until you really need it.

Why am I thinking of this now? Because I recall thinking the _last_ time I woke up that I had the worst headache ever. And really, this one puts that one to shame. I felt like my head was about to split open. I was imagining a drill boring into my brain. I… well, you get the idea by now.

This was not helped along by the fact that I felt like a limp rag that had been thoroughly wrung out. In all honesty, going right back to sleep was a very tempting choice. I was tired enough to make opening my eyes a chore and a half, never mind actually trying to move.

Nevertheless, I forced my eyes open. I was lying on my back on something cool and hard, looking up into a plain metallic ceiling. Fluorescent lighting shined down steadily; I would have covered my eyes with a hand, except moving my hand turned out to be harder than expected. Just exhaustion, I hoped.

I tilted my head on its side to look around me. I was in fact lying on a metal examining table of some kind, and the small room was filled with computers and analysis gear, some of which I recognized and some of which I didn't. No one else seemed to be in the room, and nothing seemed to be on.

Operating on sheer force of will, I managed to bring life back into my limbs and braced myself, sitting up on the table. Just that much caused the room to spin violently, and the idea of going back to sleep became infinitely more inviting. Something inside me rebelled at the idea, and I swung my legs over the side of the table and attempted to stand.

I got maybe two steps forward before I had to throw my hands out in a desperate attempt to _remain_ standing. Thankfully, I managed to brace myself against a (nonfunctional) computer terminal in front of me, sparing me the indignity and possible injury of falling to the ground. I held position there until I felt strong enough to take another go at it, and then slowly released my death grip on the terminal.

With a little effort, I found I could manage an almost drunken, exhausted stumble. I felt truly hammered, as if I had tried to stay awake for days on end… and then my gaze fell on a clock across the room that was apparently the only thing in the room that was functioning. It was barely midday. I had been sleeping for another few hours, and yet I was exhausted. What was going on here?

Operating almost purely on instinct, I stumbled my way towards the door. As I came up to it, I tried to push the thing open. Predictably, that didn't work. In fact, I rather suspected that this time the door would be locked. Whatever that Doctor Haynes wanted from me, I seriously doubted that giving me free access to his facility was one of them.

But perhaps he was depending on me to be asleep? I mean, even a C rank mage can do _something_. There was a fairly basic unlocking spell…

I reached inside myself for my source of magic and instantly realized why I felt exhausted. As far as my magical reserves were concerned, I _was_. Something was pulling at me, demanding a steady flow of power and leaving me with barely anything left. It was a miracle I was awake at all with this much of a drain on my pathetic ability!

And that would make escaping a challenge. But it had to be done. Growling with fury, I dredged up yet more energy from somewhere. My vision began to gray out at the edges as I forced power into the door in front of me.

"Unlock," I rasped. The door hissed open softly as the spell took effect, and I practically fell through, bracing myself against the door frame as I tried to regain some sense of equilibrium. In the moment of casting, I think I blacked out entirely for the briefest moment, in fact. That I was still standing at all was a welcome surprise.

How nice it would have been if that was the last thing I had to worry about. Unfortunately, the now-open door didn't lead into anything interesting at all. Just a bleak white-walled corridor in a bleak facility, branching off endlessly even within my sight.

As I stumbled out into the corridor, my hand instinctively checked my pocket. The cool metallic data chip was oddly soothing, still safely tucked away. I think that's the point at which I just kind of shut down for a little while. I don't actually know what I did from there. I suppose I could have followed the pulling sensation on my magical reserves. Maybe I remembered more of the layout of the building than I actually thought. Or maybe I just randomly wandered around the base. My memory isn't too clear on the subject, to tell the truth.

What shook me loose from that was the sound of a voice. Actually, the sound of Miku's voice, in all its innocent, honest, open glory.

"Why am I supposed to do what you ask of me?"

I glanced around in surprise. Somehow, while I had been out of sorts, my feet had carried me up to another unmarked door in a forest of plain corridors and unmarked doors. I could hear talking behind it, though!

"Come now, Miku, I am Doctor Richard Haynes! I am the one that created you, gave life to you…"

Again I forced a door open. This time, my rage burned sharper. I managed to remain standing without bracing myself against the door frame. And I walked through.

I found myself in a plain room with steel armor coating the walls. A single, metal examining bed adorned the center of the room, surrounded by machines that I had never seen before in my life. High on one wall, a glass-like screen blocked access to what looked like a control room. I could see Doctor Haynes and that Michael standing up in the control room, surrounded by technicians.

That only got a glance, though, compared to what was on the floor in front of me, standing next to the bed. A young woman, perhaps in her late teens, stood next to the bed. Long teal-colored hair, the same color as the magic circles that had appeared when I used magic with Miku's help, was tied into twin pigtails that extended to the floor, tied with an almost mechanical-looking pair of black rings with red highlights. She was wearing a skin-tight white leotard, with the belt that had appeared the one time secured around her waist. Black leggings covered her legs, ending in white anklets over bare feet; black sleeves hugged her lower arms, extending to the middle finger on each hand while coming up to the middle of her upper arm. Most strikingly, a red "01" adorned her left shoulder.

"Miku?" I asked in open surprise, reaching a hand up as if I could touch her from across the room.

She spun in surprise to fix me with a slightly confused gaze. "Who are you?"

I froze. Out of all the questions I could imagine being asked, that hadn't been on the list. Was this really…?

Haynes laughed loudly, drawing my gaze back up to him. "Oh, Sergeant, you never cease to amaze me." Beside him, Michael looked… vaguely worried?

"You know this person?" Miku asked of him, turning up to face him as well.

"Why yes, Miku," he gloated. "He is the one to whom you are tied as a familiar. Or should I say, as a Unison Device."

Instantly I realized. "That data was never intended to be put onto an Intelligent Device, was it," I accused.

"Of course not," Doctor Haynes shot back. "Miku was always going to be the next generation of Device."

Miku sighed heavily from the center of the room. "Is he some kind of test? Some kind of threat?" she asked mildly. "Are you going to ask me to start singing?"

I flinched slightly at the tone in her voice. Almost… resigned somehow, and yet there was still a trace of innocence… "You changed the personality code, didn't you," I yelled up at Haynes.

"Of course I did," he replied. "I didn't need any of the memory data you provided us, and I felt that giving her some sense of her abilities might be more useful." His glance shifted to Miku as he continued, "And if you will not do what I will, I don't see what need I have of you."

Turning to Miku, I stared intently at her, as if to will her to understand. "Miku, listen. This isn't the first time you've woken up. I can prove that to you."

Haynes continued as if I hadn't said a word. "If I don't have any other use for you, I might as well test what happens when a Unison Device loses the master to whom it is connected." His gaze flicked to me. "Sergeant, I suggest you convince her to do as I say."

I ignored him just as readily, reaching into my pocket and pulling out the data chip. "Miku… This is yours." Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Michael's face twist in what looked very much like shocked surprise. Doctor Haynes, on the other hand, was practically smoking with rage.

"Kaito! Meiko!" he yelled loudly. From the door behind me, as well as another one across the room, I heard footsteps. Across the room, Kaito walked in hurriedly. I glanced behind me for a quick moment, catching a glimpse of a woman who appeared to be in her 20s, wearing a skimpy red outfit. "Destroy that data chip immediately!"

My hand came back down, using my body to shield the data chip, as a crossfire of energy bolts ricocheted off the walls, blue and red meeting and exploding in midair.

"Miku!" I yelled out, stumbling forward as a wave of exhaustion pulled at me.

She leapt forward in one fluid motion, catching me before I had a chance to fall. I reached my hand up and handed over the data chip. "This is how you were originally created; this is how I knew you," I told this Miku. "Decide for yourself which path you prefer."

Kaito and Meiko advanced into the room, seemingly unsure of what to do now that the chip was not an obvious target. Miku barely paused before dashing back over to the bed in the center of the room, leaving me on my knees a few feet away.

Doctor Haynes's face was turning an amusing shade of purple. The things you notice at a time like this… "Kaito, Meiko," his voice echoed out from the control room, "we're going to reset this entire damn experiment. Erase them both."

The two of them continued to advance, standing side by side in between the bed and the control room window. A pair of magic circles manifested, and a crazy, dissonant mess of sound burst forth as they each began their own separate ritual spell.

A moment later, there was a scream from over by the bed. Miku cried out as a wave of energy poured from the machines surrounding her.

"I thought we shut that down!" Haynes roared in fury.

"We did!" one of the techs yelled back. "She must have powered it herself!"

I smiled. "Kind of is a pity that you created artificial mages… or is she more like a familiar? I don't know. You were aware that they could channel magic, right?"

Breathing heavily, Miku glanced up from the bed and met my gaze. With a faint smile, she leapt down again and ran to me, hand outstretched. Weakly, I reached out in response. Our hands met and twined together, and something just… clicked.

"Unison, in!" our two voices called out, perfectly in sync.

Power flowed around me. Miku's form faded into a teal wave of energy that merged with my own strength; my exhaustion vanished in an instant. My clothes shifted slightly; my uniform shaded into a silvery color, while my pants changed to black. Even my hair changed color, to match Miku's teal shade, although thankfully it didn't lengthen any. On my sleeves, computer-like buttons and screens emerged.

I… we?… glanced back towards the pair of Vocaloids singing in front of the control room's window. And I heard Miku's voice echoing in my head.

_What are we going to do about them?_ she asked, a trace of concern in her voice.

_Do you still have knowledge of your spellcasting abilities? _I asked in return. Sensing assent from her, I continued, _Pick a spell that can get both of them at once, and start from a good part; we don't want to give them too much longer._

There was a moment's pause, and then I could almost feel Miku smile. _This should do! But you'll want to stand next to them._

Reveling in my newly restored energy, I practically leaped forward to stand just outside the barriers that they had in place. _Hit it!_

The screen on my left sleeve flashed, displaying the ritual status. Studying the title, I realized that Miku had picked a song called "Love is War", and smiled eagerly. The mess of sound outside seemed to fade away as Miku's voice echoed outward, filling my head with a sharp guitar riff and a Miku that sang with an angrily defiant edge.

_And so it begins; this is war!__  
_

I reveled in the forcefulness of her voice, even though I was only getting a portion of the song. This was the first test of the changes I had made, the ability to start a song in the middle and end it early. So I was only getting the chorus, but even that much was enough. As her last note faded out, the screen flashed again. _Ritual interrupt complete. Ready spell: Sonic Shockwave. _I smiled evilly again when I realized that even those twenty or so seconds of music had given me a little over eighteen percent of the full effect.

I glanced up and fixed Haynes's surprised stare with my evil smirk. And to oblige the demands of the magic system, I parroted, "Sonic Shockwave!"

A blast of force echoed outward, a point-blank area of effect attack that hammered the protective shields established by Kaito and Meiko. I suspect that had I cast the fully charged, over-S level version of the spell, I would have reduced both of them to paste. As it stood, with this weakened version, Miku and I still broke through their defenses and knocked them both away. Energy flared up violently as their rituals were forcibly interrupted.

"They're not going to beat me, Haynes," I called out. "Not now that Miku's helping. Call them off."

Before he could reply, another voice cut in. "Doctor, there's a Bureau enforcer practically knocking down the front door!"

He cursed angrily. I noted in surprise that Michael was nowhere to be seen. "Kaito, Meiko, come and back up my departure!" he ordered sharply.

"Now hold on a moment!" I yelled. "Look, you two, you don't have to just follow every order he gives! You have the right to think for-" I realized I was yelling at an empty room, as Kaito and Meiko had taken off almost as soon as the order had been given.

_You tried,_ Miku reminded me gently. _That's all you can do._

_Miku!_ I eagerly replied. _You're…_

_I remember,_ she said almost sadly. _I was able to control the patching process, to keep the information they gave me about the ritual spellcasting and… all that_._ But I remember all that you've done, too_.

_I really…_ I tried to say, pausing as I realized I had no idea what to say. _I really didn't do that much. You don't owe me anything. I treated you the same way at first, remember?_

_But you changed,_ Miku argued back. In a cold voice, she continued, _He probably never will._

I fell silent. What do you say? What can you say? She still seemed to trust me. Perhaps she saw something in me that I didn't.

_Well, when we get a free moment,_ I suggested, _you'll have to show me that song creation system._

Again, I could almost feel her smile, rather than see it. _I'd love to._

I glanced around, trying to get a feel for what to do next. The control room above seemed abandoned now, and all of the doors were wide open.

_We need to destroy this place_, Miku said sharply. _I don't want to see him… or_ anyone_…__ doing this to another helpless Vocaloid like me._

I smiled again. _That can be arranged._

* * *

Finding my way around the base was much easier with Miku in my head and the abandoned control room within easy reach. It only took a few minutes to trace out a route deep into the facility, and little more than that to make my way through the place. There were people running in every direction, but they tended to get out of the way when they saw the look in my eyes and the energy swirling around my fingertips.

Along the way, I took some time to review with Miku her spell selection and song database. It was somewhat of a tense, spartan conversation; Miku seemed reluctant to discuss the matter, but was direct and clear in relating her understanding of her capabilities.

_It doesn't… bother you anymore?_ I asked hesitantly, once I had run out of questions about her magical abilities. _The whole… weapon thing?_

_Of course it bothers me._ Miku's reply was instant and unyielding. _I kept that part of my original personality file. I am a Vocaloid, not a Unison Device. I would rather be designed to sing._

_I… guess I can understand that…? _I said a little questioningly. _I mean, it is sort of outside my own experience, given the time I've spent training and practicing with magic… I value that ability very highly._

Miku's response to that wasn't entirely what I expected. _I realize I was first created back when you finished that Intelligent Device, in a sense,_ she began, _but according to my memory data I've spent a lot of time training and practicing too - just not with magic. It… annoys me that the 'effort' I've put into music should be secondary to my function as a magical weapon._

That set me back on my heels a little. _There's a sense in which I think I can say the same thing, _I mused. _It annoys me that the effort I've put into magic should be secondary to my abilities with Device maintenance._

_What did you do about it?_ Miku asked.

With a wry smile, I answered, _I don't think I had ever really thought about it that way until you came along and provided me with the words to describe the feeling._

I could almost feel Miku's pout in the back of my head. _That's not very helpful…_

_It wasn't supposed to be,_ I said. _Then again, I can tell you that my response was to redouble my efforts to improve my magic, even when I started to get tired of the same runaround that I kept getting from the promotion tests._

_Are you… saying that I might get tired of music?_ I could hear the faintest note of horror in Miku's voice.

_Well, the other thing you have to remember is that you're different from me,_ I pointed out. _Looking back, I think I would have enjoyed working on my Device skills more… although as long as you're here and willing to help me as a Unison Device, it's kind of a moot point since you can do far more with magic than I could ever hope to attempt. But you… your personality files define who you are, and those can be patched or rewritten. Knowing the way Devices are put together, I can say you wouldn't even need my help to do it._

_What do you mean…?_ Miku sounded confused. Hardly surprising.

_Any Intelligent Device can develop a personality or change the one they were created with; that code is part of you as well, even though you're more than an Intelligent Device at this point, _I explained. _Devices can have desires, make requests, suggest courses of action suited to those… so can you. Using you as a magical weapon was what _he_ wanted from you. Now that he's created you, though, _you_ can decide what you want to do._

At that moment, we reached our destination. The room I walked into was a wide-open room, filled with old-style physical control panels (that is to say, switches and buttons rather than magical screens) and display readouts of the surrounding machinery. There was a reason for the design difference. The surrounding machinery was the magical reactor that provided the facility with its power, and physical control was required if the reactor should suffer damage.

As it was about to.

My gaze swept over the readouts, but I admit that my focus wasn't on them. I was still caught up in what Miku had been saying, and yet I managed to take in the details well enough. The main containment system there. Razor-thin control circuits, that directed the flow of energy through the reactor, surrounding that. Energy transfer cables, as thick around as my forearm, to actually carry output away. Several failsafe systems that would cut off energy generation if unsafe conditions developed. A connection to the main vent, if the reactor should need to dispose of excess output quickly. And the control room, where I was standing, just about in the center of it all.

_Now, I recall something that you said you wanted to do earlier…_ I suggested grimly. _I don't think I can do it alone, though._

_I'm with you, _Miku told me. _I may not have wanted this power, but if I have to use it, I will._

_Shall we start then?_ I suggested, walking slowly to the center of the room next to a control panel. _I think I know which song fits this…_

_So do I, _Miku replied. Haunting organ music heralded the beginning of Miku's song, and a magic circle burst into life at my feet - a shimmering one glowing a very dark, almost black, shade of blue. I didn't even glance at the screen this time. I knew what she was singing.

Much to my surprise, it took nearly a minute for the inevitable interruption to arrive. "Stop right there!" an all too familiar voice called out from behind. I whirled around in surprise to see Fate charge into the reactor control room, a scythe of yellow energy at her side. She paused for a moment in what seemed to be surprise as she registered my presence.

_I shall evolve into a princess that brings forth only destruction…_

"Oh. You." Her voice sounded almost… contrite. "I need you to evacuate this facility and await debriefing-"

"No," I cut her off, Miku's singing echoing in my ears. "Miku and I have decided. We're destroying this facility."

I saw Fate's hand tighten noticeably on her Bardiche. "My orders are to secure this facility. I can't let you destroy it."

For a long moment, we looked at each other. I shrugged. "That you're here now tells me that you realize this facility should never have existed. If you and the Bureau wanted it, you should have brought it under control before all of this happened," I rebuked her angrily. "Now? Well, I don't intend to hurt you… but if you do want a second fight, things will go differently."

_Is there meaning in destroying things…?_

Slowly, Bardiche came up to ready position, scythe braced for a rush that would end with me in two pieces. Fate still seemed to be hesitating. Perhaps she remembered the last time she had rushed into things?

And yet, I couldn't help but laugh. "You realize you're making the same tactical mistake you made last time, right?"

Fate's eyes narrowed. "What?!"

_These overflowing tears are dyed black; to this world that has changed everything I sing the prelude to destruction!_

"Can't you hear the music?" I reminded her. "Don't you realize what that means?"

Her eyes widened slightly in surprised recollection for the briefest moment.

"This time, though, it isn't a shield," I taunted. _Ready spell._

Her blade flashed as the inevitable rush finally came. She was fast. No doubt about that. But she had paused for an instant too long.

"Prelude to Destruction!" I called out triumphantly. Pinpricks of black flame filled the space around me, causing Fate to check her charge just short of running headlong into the glittering points of dark fire.

To her credit, Fate didn't even hesitate. Bardiche shifted back into its standard form, and she whipped around to the side and fired a series of energy bolts at me.

I just stood there, directing the spell that I had just cast. One of the points of black flame flared and unleashed a tight laser of magical energy, neatly cutting through the attack before it got anywhere near me. Turning to keep Fate in sight as best I could, I waited for a quick moment until she was right where I wanted her, then opened fire with a triad of focused lasers.

She dodged aside as if it was nothing, leaving my beam attack to burrow into the wall behind where she used to be. The energy attacks from this new spell, this Prelude, were powerful and fast, but Fate seemed to be on an entirely different level even compared to it. She was just too _fast_ for anything to come even close! Well, it wasn't actually going to be that much of a problem, I hoped.

Faintly, I registered that Miku was still singing, readying a second spell for me as I used up the first. It was a minor concern as I went into an all-out attack, firing a steady series of beam attacks at a target I could barely even see. A few times, one of my beam attacks would come close to the yellow-white blur that was my target, but most of them missed, scoring long lines in the surrounding walls and occasionally punching through them. Display screens shattered and control panels were left bent and twisted as I racked up miss after miss.

The only upside was that Fate could do little to regain the offensive while I was pounding her with the steady attack pattern. Or so I thought. That was about when she redirected and came at me through the hailstorm of laser fire. It actually didn't go too badly for her; given her speed I only landed one or two hits in the time I had, and those were glancing blows.

In return, Bardiche flashed back into its scythe mode and lashed out. I activated all of my remaining lasers, encasing myself in a cage of black fire that neatly deflected the blade's strike, and then Fate was past me and back out of melee range. Finally, she skidded to a stop, staring at me with surprise and confusion clear on her face.

I was smiling broadly. That might have had something to do with her confusion.

"Do you think you have the advantage here?" she asked bluntly. "Even if you activate that spell again, you won't have as much endurance this time around. Mine will outdo yours."

"Fate," I informed her just as sharply, "I'm not a combat mage. Surviving that exchange might as well be a victory. Besides," I continued as the entire room shuddered slightly, "I did what I needed to do."

That didn't seem to alleviate any of her confusion, although the entire room shaking seemed to affect her poise a little. "What are you talking…?"

"Let's be honest here," I shot back, "if I had any practice at all with combat magic on this level, I could have torn you to pieces just now, and you know it." I let my gaze drift to the main monitor that I had intentionally left intact throughout the exchange of fire; the room shuddered violently once more. "Unfortunately for you, I don't need that level of practice to achieve a kind of victory here… and I was never really the type of person to go around tearing other Bureau employees to pieces anyway."

Fate followed my gaze to the main monitor, the reactor status readout. To the yellow caution indicators on it that were shifting to the flashing red of a critical situation even as I spoke.

"I had a chance to think about that, you know - who I am: a top-notch device technician. An engineer. Specialist in the framework that runs everything from small devices… to facility-level reactor systems." The color drained from Fate's face as I continued in a flat, cold monotone. "Admittedly I don't really have any experience with something on this scale, but I understand it well enough to break it in a number of really bad ways. And with you running around like that, it was simple enough to 'miss' you and hit, say… all the failsafes. A stray shot here and there fusing the output cables to the control circuits. A laser neatly severing the vent connection. That kind of thing."

"You're completely mad," Fate whispered in shock, really looking at the readout for the first time. "A reactor meltdown of this size-"

"Should create an explosion that will completely sterilize everything within two hundred meters of this point and cause severe damage to an area ten times that size, if I understand these readouts correctly," I finished for her. "It's hard to say, really, but I think we probably have little more than five or six minutes before we get to see for ourselves."

"Don't you _realize_ what that will do?" Fate yelled at me.

"Well," I replied coldly, "among other things, if you go _now_ you still have time to search the facility and the surrounding area, and try to ensure that no one will be caught up in it. Thankfully reactor tech has improved considerably over the many years that we've been building these things, so we shouldn't see any kind of shockwave effect that might cause casualties outside the immediate blast zone."

Now Fate was just staring at me with open, molten hatred. "How _dare_ you…"

"Prelude to Destruction." The field of black fire was noticeably smaller this time, but I had high hopes for this bluff all the same. "If you fight, you'll probably win. You might even win in enough time to get us both out of here before this thing goes up."

"_Damn_ you!" Fate yelled out angrily. In an instant, she blurred out through the door, practically tearing it off its hinges as she rushed out of the room.

I sighed heavily. _Well, at least she'll be fine._

_What about us?!_ Miku demanded, fear obvious in her voice.

_That's why you need to start singing again._

* * *

Fate hovered nearly a kilometer over the forest, frantically scanning the foliage for signs of life. The research facility was in a secluded area, but people always had a habit of showing up where they weren't supposed to be. The techs from the lab, for example, were running away from the now-doomed facility as fast as they could, but they weren't nearly far enough away yet. And all it would take was one group of campers in the wrong place at the wrong time…

Yet again Fate cursed her luck. _A moment too late to lay hands on that Haynes bastard… god only _knows _where he went. A rogue Sergeant with a death wish. And now he's going to take an area the size of a small city with him._

She arrowed down into the forest, alighting next to the group of lab technicians. "Halt!"

"But-" one of them started to protest.

"You'll never get far enough away," Fate shot back in a tone that brooked no argument. "Bardiche!"

"Defenser Plus," it replied, as a yellow energy barrier flashed into existence around the group.

"That should be enough, at this range," Fate sighed. "Hold there while I try to make sure that no one else-"

"Warning. Energy levels peaking." Bardiche announced calmly. "Reactor energy release imminent."

Desperately, Fate shot up into the air. "Nothing detected in the surrounding area?" she demanded.

"As yet uncer-" Bardiche's last word faded out before the massive roar of a titanic explosion. A massive column of fire bloomed over the trees as the reactor let go, reducing the research facility to ash in all of an instant.

The fireball faded just as quickly; most of its energy had for some reason been directed upward rather than outward, vaporizing the facility itself but leaving much of the surrounding forest intact. Fate sighed with something very much like relief.

"Ma'am?" a new voice asked from her left. Fate turned to acknowledge the arrival of the Bureau aerial mages.

"Unfortunately I was unable to prevent the facility's destruction," she explained. "Spread out and check for survivors or injuries. Take into custody any people connected to the research facility."

As the Bureau marines darted off in every direction to do their jobs, Fate sighed. _Well, looks like this case has come to a highly unsatisfying end._

* * *

**NEW CALENDAR 0079 MONTH 11 DAY 17 H23M03**

**FILE RECOVERY COMPLETED  
COPY OF RELEVANT FILE APPENDED BELOW  
BEGINNING TRACKING OPERATION OF ALPHA AND BETA TARGETS  
THE HUNT GOES ON**

**FILE 01  
TYPE: TEXT FILE (ELECTRONIC MAIL)  
RECOVERED FROM: CENTRAL BUREAU SERVER BANKS  
NOTES: DELETED BY RECIPIENT**

From: Unknown_sender (unknown)  
To: Haruko Nakamura (Final Judgment)  
Subject:

You may consider this letter my resignation from the Time-Space Administration Bureau's Ground Forces. Then again, if they realized that we're not actually dead (and I'd hope that someone noticed the odd pattern of the explosion and wondered how that happened!), I imagine you'd be under orders to take me into custody, were I to deliver this in person. So I guess resignation's kind of implied by now.

You're welcome to tell the higher-ups that we're still around, if you want. I don't actually care about keeping it a secret; if I did I wouldn't have sent you this message. Good luck tracking it back to me though. You'll need it, should you try.

I do need to say, too, that neither of us is interested in working for the Bureau any further, especially not as research subjects. And Miku agreed that she should hold onto the ritual system that enabled that high-power spellcasting. So if the higher-ups do want to do something about the fact that we're still around, I suggest they send someone powerful.

Miku wants to explore, see the many different worlds that our universe has to offer. As for me, well, I think I've had more than enough of my life in the Bureau Ground Forces, and Miku said she'd like someone to keep her company. Besides, I know more about getting around in Bureau space than she does.

Well, I think that's about it. Miku sends her regards, and says she regrets never really introducing herself to you. As for me… I really need to thank you for all that you did for me. I don't really know how best to put it, actually. Maybe all I can say is that, while I now realize that the Ground Forces weren't what I wanted to do with my life, I'm nevertheless honored to have served in the 42nd under your command.

Until the next time we meet, Haruko.


End file.
